Shinobi of the Hidden Village: The Forgotten
by samuraistorm
Summary: New demons are terrorizing innocent lives. Naruto and his friends must get rid of the demons before Akatsuki gets them. Their mission will take them to new places, meet new people, and new enemies, like pirates. Main pairing NaruxHina and SasuxSaku
1. Something New

**Well, I was able to remember some things about this story plot. I was able to get it all together to make the first chapter. So here it is.**

**Please enjoy.**

* * *

All seemed quiet in the open field. A small breeze drifted over the grass as it danced with the flow. A small group of rabbits hopped around the field, enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Suddenly, a large fireball hit a patch of grass right by the rabbits. In panic, the rabbits hopped away fast as ever. Two figures slammed into each other repeatedly as they moved around the field.

Sasuke and Naruto clanged swords at each other while running around the field, taking advantage of the large amount of space they were able to use. As Sasuke made a swipe at Naruto's legs, Naruto jumped and flipped over him, landing several feet away.

Naruto made five hand seals, preparing for a jutsu. Dog, Snake, Monkey, Ox, Tiger. "_Magen: Jubaku Satsu_(Demonic Illusion: Tree Bind Death)!" Behind Sasuke, tree roots began to sprout from the ground and wrap themselves around Sasuke's body, removing movement. Naruto then charged at Sasuke, but this was countered when Sasuke activated his Sharingan. "_Kyōten Chiten_(Mirror Heaven and Earth Change)." Suddenly, Naruto found himself in the same situation as Sasuke, but Sasuke was now free from the roots. As Naruto tried to break free from the grasped, Sasuke charged at him. "_Fuuton: Bugu no Tanken_(Wing Release: Armour of Daggers)!" Naruto's body began to ignite in a whirling flow of wind chakra. The chakra cut through the roots and freed Naruto from the bind.

Naruto dashed right under Sasuke as he dodged a swipe of his sword. Now, with the two of them standing apart once more they prepared for a powerful jutsu. Naruto brought his right hand forward while Sasuke brought his left hand forward. They summoned their own variation of element chakra; wind for Naruto and lightning for Sasuke.

"_Fuuton: Rasengan_!"

"_Chidori_!"

The two charged at eachother, but at the moment they were about to make contact.

"Stop!"

The two stopped in their tracks, looking over to where it came from.

"Ok, that went well." Tsunade came out from the trees, followed by several jounin who were also hiding in the trees. Jiraiya jumped from the top of the trees, where he was sitting. "Well, I think we went through everything; use of taijutsu, genjutsu, and ninjutsu. You two can go home now. I'll have your results later today, come by my office in an hour or so."

The two fighters canceled their jutsus, the powerful chakras in their hands faded away little by little until there was nothing left.

"Sasuke, I was hoping to see you use that special jutsu during the exam." Jiraiya said.

"I guess I didn't think about it." Sasuke replied.

Ever since Sasuke had shown his new jutsu, the _Chi goendori_(One Thousand Phoenix), Tsunade and Jiraiya had been very impressed with Sasuke's strength.

...Flashback...

Sasuke and Naruto stood in Tsunade's office with her and Jiraiya in the room as well.

"I've been meaning to ask you." Tsunade turned to the raven-haired shinobi, "That jutsu you used to kill Orochimaru, show it to me."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

"Alright." Sasuke made the proper seals for the jutsu. With his left hand out and his right grasping the wrist, he channeled his lightning chakra. With his right hand, he channeled his fire chakra into the lightning. The two different elements formed the same bladed weapon that killed the now deceased snake Sannin.

"This is very interesting." Tsunade said, examining the jutsu.

"What's so special about it?" Naruto asked.

"It's not common for a shinobi to be able to combine two different elements together like this." Jiraiya said, "I'm sure you learned about kekkei genkai."

"Yeah, like Mokuton and the Sharingan." Naruto said, remembering his history of things he learned.

"Well, if you remember, kekkei genkai like Mokuton is the fusion of two different chakra elements. It's almost impossible to do without a kekkei genkai. Using two different elements at the same time but separately, that's an exception."

After having a hard look at the jutsu, Tsunade was stumped. "I just don't get it. I've seen Uchihas able to use more than two different elements, but I've never seen something like this. You can stop it now."

Sasuke closed his hand into a fist and let the chakra fade away. The fire from the jutsu first faded, which suddenly got Jiraiya's attention. "Wait, look."

Everyone looked at what Jiraiya was pointing at.

"What are we looking for?" Tsunade asked.

"Did you see what just happened?" Jiraiya asked, "The fire went out first."

Seeing the jutsu fade, he was right. The fire faded away, leaving the lightning, then it too later faded.

"What does that mean?" Naruto asked.

"This isn't kekkei genkai." Jiraiya said, "It's just chakra control. Sasuke created a a layer of fire over the chidori."

"Huh?" Naruto was still confused at the part of what was so important of the fire fading away from the jutsu first.

_Oh boy, how do I explain it to him?_ Jiraiya sighed, "Alright, think of this as ice cream. You've got the cone, and then you have the ice cream in it."

"...ok..."

"The ice cream isn't mixed with the cone, but its still there. That's how this jutsu works. The lightning is the ice cream and the cone is the fire covering it." Jiraiya finished explaining. _Was that too much for him?  
_

"Oh..now I get it." Naruto said with a looked of sudden realization, "Like how my Rasengan works with the wind element."

Jiraiya and Tsunade stared at the blonde. _20 years old and he still has the knowledge of a 12 year old._

...End...

"Well, that's enough for today." Tsunade said, "I've got what I wanted to see, you two can go home now."

* * *

"Well, I think that went well." Naruto said proudly. "And it was kinda fun."

The two were walking down Konoha, heading through the marketplace.

"You still never told me why you needed to take the exam." Sasuke said, "Sakura told me you already became a jounin."

"Well apparently, Baa-chan said that since I took my Jounin Exam without Konoha jurisdiction, I wasn't officially a jounin." Naruto answered his question, "She was meaning to have me take the exam sooner, but missions kept getting in the way."

"Well, I guess that makes sense." Sasuke said. He looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was starting to set, "Listen, I gotta go shopping before heading home. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright." Naruto smiled to his friend. The two parted ways, with Sasuke staying behind at the marketplace and Naruto heading back home. When he made it home, he was greeted by his 'roommate'.

"Naruto-kun, how was it?" Hinata asked. She was sitting on the couch reading a small book.

"Wasn't anything like the Jounin Exam I took when I was gone." Naruto said. He sighed heavily and fell onto the couch next to her. He then fell back and rested his head on her lap. "So, what were you up to while I was gone?"

"Just did some cleaning." Hinata said. She gently stroked his hair. It was a little sticky from sweat, but she didn't care. As long as it was Naruto, she didn't care about any flaws he had. "Oh, and Sakura came by a few minutes ago."

"Really? What did she want?" Naruto asked.

"Well, she asked if you were back from the exam." Hinata said, "She wanted to find Sasuke and ask him something."

"About what?"

"The festival tomorrow night. She wants to know if he's coming."

* * *

"Why can't you come?" Sakura asked with a frown. She had found Sasuke at the marketplace, going from store to store purchasing items. "It would mean the world to me."

"I'm really sorry Sakura, but I still have to serve time." Sasuke said. "I'm under house arrest until the Hokage says I'm free." He looked over his shoulder and saw an ANBU standing on the rooftop staring down on him. "I've got ANBU watching me constantly, even when I'm taking a bath, they're there to make sure I don't do anything stupid. I'm not even allowed on missions."

"Then how were you able to go with that mission to get Zabuza's sword back?"

"Naruto begged to have me join." Sasuke said, "I'm really sorry, but I can't be out of my house after 7." He looked at his watch, "Sorry, but I gotta get back."

"Wait, why are you outside in the first place?" Sakura asked, pointing a finger at him.

Sasuke lifted his arm and showed her a bag of groceries. "I need my daily supply of food."

* * *

Naruto walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. He had gone into the bathroom a few seconds ago and was now out to grab something from the bedroom. As he came into the room, he saw that Hinata was there as well. She was dressed in her nightgown, a pale blue dress that was supported with spaghetti straps.

"Oh, Naruto-kun, look at yourself." Hinata walked up to him and placed her hands over his chest, "You hurt yourself."

"It's a Jounin Exam, you knew I would go through with this." Naruto said, "But I'll be fine." He reached for her left strap and pulled them over her shoulder.

"Not now Naruto-kun. I'll have to shower too then." Hinata said.

"Then take it with me." Naruto grinned. He then reached for the right and let that drop too. He then gently pulled her dress down to drop on the floor, leaving Hinata in only her panties. Lifting her up in his arms, he carried her to the bed. As the two laid on the bed, they kissed each other while they wrapped themselves around each other.

* * *

Naruto woke up alone in his bedroom, Hinata wasn't with him sleeping. He looked to her pillow and saw that she had left a note.

_Went to practice dancing with Sakura for the talent show earlier than expected. Hope you didn't forget about meeting us._

_Love, Hinata._

Naruto looked at the clock. It was now 1:22 pm. He was supposed to meet them half an hour ago. In panic, he jumped out of bed and got washed up as quickly as he could. With everything ready, he ran out of his home and off to meet with the girls. Naruto ran through the forest. _Of all days..._ He had promised that he would meet with Hinata and Sakura and watch them practice for the Konoha Talent Show. It was bad enough that Naruto slept in today, but it was worse since he didn't remember where to find those two. He carried two bags with him, being as gentle as he could while he ran.

"Come on, I need to get this right." He heard Sakura's voice to his left. He ran in that direction and sure enough, he found them.

"Sorry I'm late." Naruto panted, "I was..."

"If you're gonna say you saw a black cat, then I don't want to hear it." Sakura said, "You're just lucky I'm in a good mood."

"So, how's the dance coming?" Naruto asked.

"It's getting better." Sakura smiled, "I'm just adding some finishing touches."

"Where did Hinata go?" Naruto asked.

"Neji came to say that her father wanted to see her so she left early." Sakura said. "I think I can take a break for now." Sakura slumped to the ground, "I've been practicing for two hours now."

"Well that's good to know." Naruto smiled. He showed her the bags. "Because I brought lunch."

The two enjoyed some time together, eating lunch and basking under the sunlight. They shared some conversations and laughs as they let the time pass by while they ate. Sakura packed her lunch away when she noticed a leaf fall from the tree above.

"Hey, this is perfect." Sakura took the leaf.

"Perfect for what?" Naruto asked.

Sakura pressed the leaf to her mouth and began to blow into it. A soft note came from the leaf that filled the place with a light graceful feeling.

"How'd you do that?" Naruto asked, "That was awesome."

"You've never played on a leaf before?" Sakura asked. "Here, let me show you." She looked around the ground for another leaf. "Ah, here's one. Here take this." She handed the leaf to Naruto. "Now position your hands on the leaf like this, and press it to your mouth." She showed Naruto how to hold the leaf properly to get a good sound. "When you're ready, just blow."

Naruto did as she said, but all he got was the sound of air coming out of his lips. "Its not working."

"Keep trying." Sakura said.

Naruto took a deep breath, pressed the leaf to his lips and released the air out. He began to get a sound from it, but it was too quiet. He tried to move the leaf to a better place on his lip to get a better sound and finally, he got a soft note.

"You did it!" Sakura cheered.

"Well, looks like you've been preparing."

The two looked over and saw Tsunade approaching them. "Naruto, you never told me you played the leaf before."

"I..."

"Never mind, I'm sure you'll do fine." Tsunade smiled, "Since you didn't inform me before, I'll have to put your name in the program."

"For the Talent Show?" Naruto asked, "But..."

"Don't worry, its not too late to enter." Tsunade said, "I'll have Tenten know about this right away. But first, Sakura, I need you at the hospital. Lee's injured himself again in training."

"Hai." Sakura said, "I'll see you tonight."

"But wait." Naruto got up to run to the two women, but they disappeared in the trees, "I...just started...playing the leaf..." He dropped to the ground, "Crap."

* * *

The night came. The day to celebrate the day Konoha was founded began. Citizens gathered in the central area of the village to take part in the celebration with all of them dressed up formally for such an occasion. A large stage was set up at one end with lights and decorations all over it. Within hours of the celebration, the Talent Show was soon to commence.

"Welcome to this years Konoha Anniversary." Tsunade spoke on the stage, "Today is a great day to be joyous. For it is the day our village was created for our families to live in with peace."

The villagers cheered with loud cries of joy.

"And I would now like to introduce you all to tonights Talent Show. We have performers with extraordinary talents that show to us all." Tsunade spoke again, "And now, we begin!"

"What am I gonna do, what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do..." Naruto paced around the floor backstage. How could he have ended up in this situation. He only learned to play the leaf this afternoon and now he's on stage ready to perform it to all of Konoha. He peered out to see what was happening now. Konohamaru was showing off his talents with a shadow clone by juggling. Naruto smiled at this, but it wasn't enough to shake the fear off of him.

"Alright Naruto, you're up next." Tenten came backstage.

"But I can't do this." Naruto said.

"Well, you put your name on the program for a reason." Tenten said.

"But I didn't Baa-chan did. She's the one who..."

"Sorry no time." Tenten grabbed Naruto and pulled him to the stage, "You're up." She gave Naruto a heavy push and sent him on stage.

Naruto stared at the crowd. They were all looking at him, just waiting for something. _Somebody please help me._ Naruto held onto the leaf and looked down at it. What's the worse that could happen if he screws up? They can't hate him for being bad, could they? Naruto was now more panicked. "Please help me..." He whispered to himself. Suddenly, something played in his head as he looked at the leaf. Very faintly, he could hear a tune in his mind playing softly and gracefully. Naruto brought the leaf to his lips and took a deep breath. With the tune still in his mind, he blew on the leaf.

Everyone who had been watching were now enchanted by the wonderful tune that Naruto was playing. They all smiled as if they were now dreaming a perfect dream as the music played. Among them, Jiraiya watched in surprise as he heard the tune. To him, it was familiar._ How did he..._

Far from the place of the event, Sasuke was alone in his bedroom with nothing to do. He then heard that everything was silent except for a soft tune. He got out of bed and walked to his window. He ignored the ANBU who was standing outside and looked ahead to where everyone else was. The music was so amazing, Sasuke was surprised that he was able to hear such great music at this distance.

Naruto finally ended the music and removed the leaf away from his lips. He stared at the people who were watching him, they were all silent. Was that bad? Suddenly, they all erupted into cheers. Naruto bowed and walked backstage

* * *

Sakura and Hinata arrived backstage to see Naruto.

"Naruto, that was incredible." Sakura said.

"I didn't know you could play the leaf." Hinata said. She looked concerned when Naruto didn't answer right away. "Naruto-kun, what's wrong."

"Hinata...I've never played the leaf before." He answered, "This was the first time I've ever played a tune with a leaf."

"Then, how did you play like that?" Hinata asked.

"I don't know."

"Its not the first time _I_ heard it." Jiraiya said, walking to the group.

"Huh? You've heard it before?" Naruto asked. "Where?"

"With your father." Jiraiya answered, "He created that tune. He made it for you."

"For me? Why?"

"Its your lullaby."

* * *

**Well, glad that's done with.**

**I hope this answers your questions regarding Sasuke. When I said the 'Tsunade pulled strings' to allow Sasuke to attend Neji and Tenten's engagement dinner, I didn't mean drop all charges. He still needs to serve time.**

**From when this story takes place, its now 9 months later, so Sasuke has been under house arrest for a whole year.**

**Hope you liked it, please review.**


	2. Things Change As Time Passes By

**Well, it feels great to be able to get this story back up again. I was able to get the storyboard for the first half of this story done. I'll have it up while I work on the second half.**

**Please enjoy.**

* * *

"My lullaby?" Naruto asked, "How come I've never heard it before, yet I know all the notes?"

"Well actually, this isn't the first time I heard it from you." Jiraiya said, "If you remember when we went out to find Tsunade and I taught you the Rasengan, there was a time I heard it from you."

"When?"

"Do you remember the time you were just staring at the drawing of the leaf on your palm after you finished the second part of training?"

"Yeah, the rubber ball one." Naruto said.

"Well, I heard you humming the tune." Jiraiya said, "I thought it was all in my head. Since you reminded me so much of your father, I figured it was just me assuming it was the lullaby."

Naruto looked at the leaf, ever since, Naruto learned of his heritage, he was slowly beginning to see himself in a different light. And not just him, other people in the village have grown to respect Naruto because of it. They no longer saw him as a monster, but as a human, a hero, Minato's son.

"You're more like your parents than you think." Jiraiya said, smiling. "They'd be proud to know what you've accomplished."

"Heh." Naruto smirked, "You've been saying that so many times."

"I guess I do." Jiraiya said. He couldn't help but look at Naruto with a bright smile. "I just find it so hard to believe that I was with you all these years, and never made the connection. You look so like your father, yet I didn't bother realizing that you were his son." He put his hands on Naruto's shoulders, "Seeing you, I remember what it felt like to have your father around."

"Naruto, I'm gonna go see Sasuke now." Sakura said, "You want to come?"

"Oh, sure. I'll be right there." Naruto said. He turned back to Jiraiya, "So I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, tomorrow." Jiraiya replied. He watched as Naruto ran off with Sakura towards Sasuke's place. _It really _does_ feel like having Minato back._

* * *

The next morning, things were very hectic at the hospital. A doctor was leaving the hospital, heading to the Hokage's office with a file in her hands. She finally arrived at the door to the office and opened it and continued to run in.

"We have another one!" a doctor came into the Hokage's office with a file. "Same condition as that last two."

"What?" Tsuande took the file that was given to her. "Who's the cause of this?" Tsunade asked, wondering how these tragedies keep happening.

Both her and Sakura examined the file. According to what it states, the body of this victim was that of a male about the age of 30. The clothing on the person showed that this man was an ordinary person, an innocent person. His chest was completely ripped open, the internal organs were visible and horribly damaged.

"They're all the same; chests ripped open and all of them appear as if it came from the inside." Sakura said.

"This is so strange. How long has this been happening?" Tsunade asked.

"Well the first one we found happened to be a citizen from the Wave Country." The doctor said, "And I was also told that there were few more that were from the Lightning Country."

Sakura looked at her master in concern. "Do you think this could be contagious?" Sakura asked.

"Impossible." Tsunade said, "If it were a contagious virus, than it would not be affecting people one by one. This has to be some kind of jutsu of some sort."

"You don't think this is the work of one person do you?" Sakura asked.

"Right now, its the only thing I can think of." Tsunade said, "But before I finalize it, go check on the bodies of our victims. See if you can find anything out of the ordinary with them. Sakura, you can go now. Do what I asked."

"Hai." Sakura bowed and left the office with the doctor leaving after her.

Tsunade was getting very stressed with all this information about these victims with similar causes of death. What kind of jutsu could this be? What was the purpose of doing this? Who would do something like this? All these questions entered her mind while the file was still open on her desk.

* * *

"Sasuke, open up!" Sakura shouted while she knocked on is door. After several minutes, Sasuke finally opened the door, but was in nothing but a towel, and wearing very drowsy eyes, "What were you doing?"

"Masterbating." Sasuke answered bluntly, right before yawning. Seeing that Sakura didn't get the joke, "Jesus, how dense can you get, I was about to take a shower."

"Oh, that's a relief." Sakura smirked, "You better hurry, Tsunade wants to see you in her office in thirty minutes."

"Oh crap..." Sasuke's drowsy face suddenly changed into a look of shock. "Its today?!" Sasuke slammed the door on Sakura, "I'll see you there!"

"Um...ok..." Sakura turned and left the doorway, heading straight back to the Hokage's office.

* * *

Sasuke stood before the Hokage with ANBU standing around him.

"The elders and I have come to an agreement." Tsunade said, "You have been cooperative with your punishment and never have you violated the rules we set. With that in mind, as well as the fact that its been over a year since your punishment was given, it was agreed that you are now released from house arrest."

Sasuke smiled in relief, he was finally able to wander around Konoha with no more limitations. "Thank you."

"You'd probably want to tell some friends. You can go now." Tsunade said.

Sasuke bowed before heading to the door and leaving. As he closed the door of the office behind him, Sakura came running into his arms.

"Sasuke!" She jumped and wrapped her arms around him. "How did it go?"

"I'm free now." Sasuke said, hugging her back. "I'm a free man again."

"That's great! We have to tell Naruto."

"Do I have to?" Sasuke asked, "You know what he's gonna do once he finds out."

"Oh come on, he's your best friend." Sakura smiled, "I'm sure you can handle it."

* * *

"Yatta! You're finally free!" Naruto jumped up and down for joy as he held onto Sasuke. "I knew Baa-chan would let you go soon."

All this time, Sasuke had been showing disdain of the fact that Naruto had been hugging him like this. _This is more awkward than being alone with Karin. Somebody please kill me before he does it first._ "Naruto, you're crushing my ribs."

"Its about time I found you, Naruto."

"Huh?" Naruto and the others looked over to where the voice came from, "Ero-sennin."

"Tsunade wants to see you and I." Jiraya said, "There's something we both need to tell you, privately."

"So does that mean we can't join?" Sakura asked, referring to herself and Sasuke.

"Sorry, this is something between the three of us. Come on Naruto, let's go."

"Well, its great to hear that your free now Sasuke." Naruto smiled, "Maybe we can meet later for training."

"Sounds good to me." Sasuke smiled back, "Just stop by my place anytime."

Naruto then ran after Jiraiya after realizing that he didn't bother stopping to wait for Naruto. Sasuke waved to Naruto as he shrank into the the horizon.

"You know, Sasuke, now that you've served your time, the ANBU aren't standing around your house anymore." Sakura said.

The two stared at each other in that fact. They both knew what the other was thinking, they were just waiting for the other to initiate it.

"I'll go get spare clothes." Sakura said, quickly heading to the direction of her home.

"I'll go rent a movie." Sasuke said, heading to his place.

* * *

Tsunade sat at her desk, looking over the medical notes. After looking over all the victims that suffered the same strange brutal death, she was able to find a connection between them all.

"Seven different cases, all with the same conditions." Tsunade said, flipping through all the reports, "Chakra completely drained from each of them, and their chests ripped open from the inside. Who would have the power and mental capacity to do such a thing?"

Her question would have to be answered another time, Jiraiya and Naruto came into her office moments later.

"Well, what is it you asked me here for?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade put the papers away. "Naruto, I'm glad you came so soon. Sit down." Tsunade motioned him to sit on the sofa that was situated on the right side of the office. Tsunade and Jiraiya both stood in front of Naruto, as they waited for him to sit. "Naruto, after we all learned about who you really were, the two of us," Refering to herself and Jiraiya, "We both did some digging into items and found these." Tsunade handed Naruto a small chest. "These were all the things that we were able to find that your father and mother left."

Naruto opened the chest and looked in the contents. He was immediately taken away by what he saw inside; photos of his parents, several of his father's signature kunai, clothing that belong to his father, and most notably, a small green box lined with gold trimmings. Naruto took the box and slowly opened it. Inside, there was leaf, it was bright yellow in color and it looked as if it was fresh.

"That's a leaf from a mugendai(infinity) tree." Tsunade said, knowing exactly what kind of leaf it was, "Those are very rare, and very unique from a regular tree leaf."

"How?" Naruto asked.

"Even when plucked from the branch, the leaf never loses its life, it remains fresh as long as its taken care of." Jiraiya explained, "I remember giving that to Minato as a wedding gift. Even before he met Kushina, he had a talent in making music with a leaf. I knew that a mugendai leaf would be the perfect gift for his talent."

Naruto then noticed several envelopes in the chest. "What are these?" Naruto asked as he picked them up.

"Uh...You don't have to worry about that." Jiraiya quickly snatched the envelopes off Naruto's hands.

"What are they?" Naruto asked.

"Oh no. Are those what I think they are?" Tsunade asked, giving Jiraiya a look that said, 'I remember that, what the hell?'.

"What? What is it?" Naruto asked.

"Those are love letters your father gave to your mother to try and woo her." Tsunade said, "All of them were 'Jiraiya-edited'."

Naruto looked down at the chest, noticing that there was one envelope left inside. He opened the envelope and read the contents. After a minute of reading it, Naruto dropped the paper and gave Jiraiya a dirty look. "You are one perverted old man. What makes you think a love letter should have the word 'breasts' in it more than ten times?"

"Oh don't worry, Minato had the guts to give them to her." Jiraiya said, "Be grateful that the world never saw them."

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura laid in bed with the bed covers scarcely over them. Sakura rested her head on his chest and Sasuke wrapped his arms around her.

"Wow..." Sakura panted, "That...that was incredible. You were so great."

Sasuke took some time to breathe before answering, "Thanks...you were pretty great yourself."

Sakura then rolled around, pressing her breasts against his chest, "Let's do it again."

"But we didn't even watch the movie yet." Sasuke said.

"Oh, stop being such a pussy." Sakura said, "Just one more."

* * *

It was now night and everyone at Konaha was either sound asleep, or out working at whatever they did. There was only one who wasn't in either of these.

Naruto was tossing and turning in bed, sweating as he tried to shake off the horrible thoughts that were in his head.

_"Minato-kun!" Kushina was seen running around the grass field, "Minato-kun!"_

_Naruto recognized the place, it was the afterlife, the place where he first met his parents, when he died. But what was happening? Suddenly a flash of light blinded Naruto and he now saw his father in a pit of darkness._

_"Otou-chan?"_

_Minato was slowly starting to be covered by the darkness. Naruto could only watch his dream go on as his father was now disappearing in the darkness._

_"Otou-chan! No!"_

Naruto woke up from his dream. He panted heavily, trying to understand the reason behind the dream. What was the significance of him seeing his mother looking for his father and his father being covered in darkness. Naruto knew that these thoughts would prevent him from sleeping, so he decided to get out of bed.

"Aww man..." Naruto looked at the clock, it was 4 in the morning, too early in the morning for him to wake up. As Naruto got out of bed and stepped outside into his balcony, Hinata woke up from the sudden lightness of the bed and saw that Naruto was gone.

Naruto leaned on the railing of his balcony, looking at the moonlight, trying to make sense of what he dreamed of. He looked down at his feet and saw the chest that he got from Tsunade and Jiraiya. He remembered leaving he chest here until he and Hinata could find a place to put it. He kneeled down and opened the chest, taking out the mugendai leaf from inside. He didn't know why, but he suddenly had the urge to play the tune. He put the leaf to his lips and played his lullaby for a second time.

* * *

Kakashi, who still up in the night to read through his _Icha Icha_ books, suddenly noticed the tune. He looked away from the book and looked out the window, as if he could see where the music came from. "Naruto? Now what are you doing up at this time of night?"

Jiraiya, who was sound asleep in his own home, suddenly woke up when the tune came to his ears. "Huh?" Jiraiya sat up from his bed and looked out the window, where Naruto's apartment was. "Naruto?"

* * *

Hinata came out to the balcony, listening to Naruto play his lullaby. "Naruto-kun?"

"Hinata." Naruto turned around. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up."

"No, its ok." Hinata said, "What are you doing out here?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I came out here for the fresh air." Naruto lied, but he didn't want to trouble Hinata with his dream.

Hinata could tell that Naruto was lying, but seeing that trying to get him to talk wouldn't be such a good idea at this time, she just sat down next to him, leaning on his shoulder as Naruto played on the leaf once more.

* * *

"So what did you bring me out here for?" Naruto asked.

Him, Kakashi and Jiraiya were standing outside a field, the very same field that they were in when Naruto first began his training on elemental jutsu. Though that was years ago, Naruto still remembered the place, even after all these years, there were many landmarks that were made by Naruto's training that were still left visible here.

"Well, I figured that we haven't had much time together these days. I thought maybe the best way to spend time together was through training." Kakashi said. "So for now, until you complete training, you and I will be seeing each other quite alot."

"I'm here to wish you good luck on your training." Jiraiya said.

"Wait, you're going somewhere?" Naruto asked.

"I have to speak with Tsunade right now." Jiraiya said, "But I'll be back to see you progress, I promise."

"Ok, well I'll see you later then." Naruto smiled.

"Bye Naruto." With that, Jiraiya dashed off through the trees.

"So, what will I be training in?" Naruto asked, "Anything awesome?"

"Oh, you betcha. Kakashi said, smiling underneath his mask. "Now that you learned about your heritage, I figured it was time for you to learn something that was mastered by your father."

"Meaning..."

"I'm going to teach you your father's greatest technique, the _Hiraishin no Jutsu_."

* * *

**Oh my god, oh my god. Naruto will finally learn it.**

**Now I know what you guys will say. 'Kakashi doesn't know the technique.', 'Did he copy it from Minato?', 'How the hell will you make it possible?' Well, Kakashi was a member of Minato's team, so I figured he would know how the technique was done. He doesn't really need to master it to teach Naruto.**

**Along with the Hiraishin, I'm going to have Naruto do something pretty cool with it. you'll just have to wait until the future chapters to find out what.**

**As of now, I'm planning to work on my Digimon-based stories first; Prevention of Chaos, and Vestige. Once those two are done, I'll fully commit to this. But don't get me wrong, I'll still update this story, but you'll probably expect updates once every month or so, maybe even once every few months.**


	3. The Unexpected

**Well, let's get this story moving now.**

**Don't forget people, I have other fanfictions I'm working on, so don't be surprised if this story takes another few months to update.**

**Anyways, read it, enjoy it, and leave a review.

* * *

**

"You serious?" Naruto asked, surprised by the news. At long last, he would be able to learn a technique that made his father famous.

"You act like its not possible." Kakashi said, "What's up?"

"Well, um...you're not my dad." Naruto answered, "How do you know it?"

"I don't need the Sharingan to figure out how a jutsu works." Kakashi said, "Your father used the jutsu many times and he even tried teaching me."

"What happened with that?"

"I failed." Kakashi answered, "Believe it or not, the jutsu required a certain level on concentration that even I couldn't achieve."

"Then what makes you think I can do it?"

"I told you once before, you may be the only person that may surpass me." Kakashi said, "And you already have, you've mastered the Rasengan, even more than you father. That's enough for me to know you have it in you to master this and maybe beat your father at it as well."

"Sweet." Naruto smiled, "Then let's get started."

* * *

Hinata was at Tenten's home, sitting on a sofa with Tenten sitting with her and Neji returning with a tray with tea. Now that Neji and Tenten were married, the two decided to live in a home of their own, not in the Hyuuga complex. Hiashi was at first skeptical, but agreed to it, even providing some money for the house. Tenten went through some great changes, she was now pregnant and only a month and a half in and slightly showing it.

"You must so happy." Hinata said, rubbing Tenten's belly. "Do you know if its a boy or girl yet?"

"No, not yet." Tenten answered, "Right now, we agreed not to find out until its born. After that, we'll have everything prepared for the baby."

"Tsunade-sama was grateful enough to have someone come by occasionally to make sure the baby was still healthy." Neji said, sitting down and placing the tray on the small coffee table.

"So, tell us. How are things with you and Naruto?" Tenten asked, taking a cup of tea and sipping it.

"Naruto-kun has been doing well." Hinata said. She then remembered the previous night. "But, Naruto seems a little distracted from time to time. I think he's been a little overwhelmed with the new things he's learned about his father."

"Well, it would make perfect sense." Neji said, "Naruto's never known who his father was for almost his entire life. Even the smallest of things could be a big surprise for him."

After spending some more time together, discussing many different topics, there was a knock on the door. "I'll go get it." Neji got up from the sofa and went to the door. As soon as he opened it, Konohamaru came running into the house. "Hinata-nee-san!"

"Konohamaru? What is it?" Hinata asked. It wasn't common for Konohamaru to be looking for Hinata, so it was rather surprising that he was here.

"Boss is in the hospital!" Konohamaru answered, "Hokage wanted me to get you."

* * *

Hinata and Sakura ran through the doors. Inside, they found Naruto, Sasuke, even Kakashi, all in bed, healing up their wounds.

"Sakura." Sasuke looked surprised as he saw Sakura run into the room.

"What the hell happened to you guys?" Sakura asked, completely concerned.

"Naruto-kun, are you alright?" Hinata asked, with the look of concern for him.

"I'm fine." Naruto said, "Baa-chan insisted that I stay until she's sure I'm fine."

"What happened to you?" Hinata asked.

"Well..." Sasuke decided to answer both her question and Sakura's. "The jackass over there," Referring to Naruto, with a tilt of his head. "Thought it would be funny to try and combine Kakashi-sensei and my elemental chakra into his Rasengan."

...Flashback...

"Are you sure about this?" Sasuke asked. "Wasn't Kakashi-sensei's words not convincing?"

"I still think its worth a shot." Naruto said. "And besides, think of the new kind of power we could have."

"You mean the new kind of power _you_ could have." Sasuke corrected, "We might be lending you our chakra, but you're the one using it."

Naruto sighed at his comment. "You gonna help me or not?"

"Kakashi-sensei, what do you say?" Sasuke asked, turning to his former teacher.

"Well," Kakashi sighed, "If we die, let's just hope its a painless one."

"Sweet." Put his hands together into his favorite handseal, "_Kage Bunshin No Jutsu_!" Naruto formed a clone to stand next to him. "Let's do this." Both Narutos extended their right hands forward and created the signature glowing blue orb. "Come on, lend me the juice."

"Do this carefully, Sasuke." Kakashi instructed, "Don't give him too much."

Kakashi and Sasuke went to each individual Naruto and brought their hands close to the Rasengan.

"_Raiton_!"

"_Katon_!"

They transferred their respective elemental chakra into the spheres, and the last thing that they saw after that was a giant explosion from each sphere.

...End...

"Hey! I didn't think it'd be funny, I thought it'd be cool."

"Well, it wasn't cool at all." Sasuke said, turning to face him, but winced in pain. "This still hurts, and I'm able to heal fast as you."

"Its not my fault you're being a pussy about this." Naruto said.

"Well, it's your fault that we're in here!"

"You could've just said no!"

"I did! You just wouldn't take no for an answer!"

"That's not true, you just can't man up!"

"Don't tell me about manning up!"

"How about you grow some balls and actually say no when you mean it?!"

"How about next time you don't do anything stupid?!"

"How about I come over there and kick your ass?!"

"Let's see you do that!"

"GUYS!" Sakura yelled. Both men stopped yelling and turned to face Sakura. "What about Kakashi-sensei?"

"Huh?" They all turned their attention to Kakashi, who was practically out cold throughout the entire ordeal. Sakura walked over to Kakashi's bed and pulled the covers down. "What the..." In place of Kakashi's body was several pillows arranged to be shaped like a body. "He's not here."

"That bastard." Naruto huffed. "If I'd known that it would work, I would've done that too."

"No you don't." Hinata said, pressing down on Naruto shoulder, forcing him to stay in bed. "You're not going anywhere."

"Same goes for you." Sakura said.

"Oh, come on." Sasuke groaned. "Don't treat me like a kid."

"I'm treating you like my patient." Sakura said. "Until you get out, I'm going to be your doctor."

"Well, that's fantastic." Sasuke muttered in sarcasm. Hearing what Sasuke said, Sakura grabbed his thumb and pulled it back. "AAAH!! Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow OW!" When Sakura finally released her grip, Sasuke grabbed his thumb with his other hand and rubbed it. "That wasn't doctor-like of you."

"Hm." Sakura smirked before leaving the room. "I'll be back."

"I have to go too." Hinata said, "Father wanted to see me."

"Ok. I'll see you later then." Naruto said with a smile.

Hinata planted a quick kiss on Naruto before leaving the room, leaving Naruto and Sasuke alone.

"You think Sakura will be back soon?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke looked over to the door. "I doubt it." He looked back at Naruto. "The windows are open and we're only on the second floor."

"Sounds like fun." Naruto grinned.

Several minutes later, Sakura returned to the room. "Alright Sasuke, time for lun..." When she found that all the beds were empty, she dropped the lunch trays she was holding. She looked around to see if they were still in theroom, but what she noticed was the open window. _They ran off?! SHANNARO!_

Naruto and Sasuke were able to take the time to change out of their hospital clothes and into what they wore before ending up in there. The two just at the gates of the hospital when they heard a familar scream, which was coming from their room.

"Oh crap..." Sasuke said, "I know that scream."

"_You_ know it?" Naruto asked, "I had to deal with it much longer than you." They then saw the front doors of the hospital swing open. Who it was that opened the doors gave the two men a chill down their spine. "Uhh.....run?"

"Run."

As the two ran from the hospital as fast as they could, Sakura chased after them, intent on sending them back to the hospital.

* * *

(several days later)

Sakura was on her way to stop by Ino's house, she needed to give Ino a file from Tsunade. As she approached the front door, she knocked, but no one answered. When she knocked again, she found that the door slowly opened. "Huh?" Sakura walked inside, "Ino?" Sakura went deeper into the house and as she went further in, she heard some noise coming from Ino's room. "Ino?" When she opened the door, her eyes grew wide as dinner plates when she saw what was going on. "What the hell?!" Sakura quickly looked away and side stepped away from the door. Ino was in her bed with Sai, doing only God knows what.

"Ah! Sakura, what are you doing in here?" Ino asked, covering herself with her blanket.

"Tsunade asked me to give you this file." Sakura showed the filed, while stilled hiding away.

"You couldn't knock?"

"I did, but no one answered. And the door was open." Sakura answered, "What the hell are you doing with Sai?"

"I...I...um....we..." Ino stuttered. "I'm...teaching him how to.....break the barrier of human connection."

"Well yeah, I can see him breaking a barrier, alright." Sakura said. "You couldn't at least lock the door?"

"You didn't lock the door?" Ino turned to Sai.

"Sakura, is this gonna be much longer?" Sasuke walked into Ino's home and saw the same sight. "Whoa!" He quickly shut his eyes and looked away. "Why are you looking at this?"

"I wasn't!" Sakura said. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I was looking for you." Sasuke said, "Tsunade wanted me to let you know that she wants us both at her office." Sasuke then looked back at Ino and Sai. "Sai, get some pants on. No one wants to see those."

"Well, do you two wish to join us?" Sai asked, completely oblivious to the reaction he got from his request.

"That's it, we're out of here." Sasuke grabbed Sakura's hand the two were out of the house in seconds.

"What did I say?" Sai asked.

"Just shut up." Ino said, "Let's do this right."

* * *

Naruto and Hinata were resting on their bed, cuddling each other and holding hands.

"Naruto-kun, stop. That tickles." Hinata giggled as Naruto was kissing her all along her neck.

"If that tickles, then how about this?" Naruto then ran his fingers all along her stomach, making her squirm and laugh some more. "That tickle?"

"Stop! Hahaha, Naruto stop." Hinata couldn't hold back her laughter. Hinata decided to fight back by tickling Naruto right back.

"Hey, that's not fair. Only I get to do the tickling." Naruto laughed.

The two continued to tickle each other, until things got out of hand and the two ended up rolling off the bed, taking the blanket with them. Naruto landed first, with Hinata landing right on top of him. The tickle fight then changed into the two kissing each other and rolling around on the floor while in each other's embrace. They finally took a break, resting on the floor with the blanket wrapped around them.

"How has training been for you?" Hinata asked.

"Pretty good, I think I'm making progress." Naruto answered, "Its still hard focusing so much chakra into the technique, but if my dad was able to do it, I know I can." While the two were still cuddling on the floor, they heard a knock on the door. Naruto got up and walked to the door, opening it. "Kakashi-sensei? Well, this is a surprise. You actually knock compared to just walking through my bedroom window at bad times."

"Godaime wants to see you." Kakashi said, "She also wishes for Hinata to be there."

"Uh...sure. We'll get changed." Naruto said, "I'll see you outside."

* * *

Kakashi entered the Hokage's office, followed by Naruto and Hinata. In the office, Tsunade was sitting at her desk, with Shizune standing next to her. Sakura, and Sasuke were standing in the office as well, but the one thing that was odd was at Naruto's left. A group of frogs were gathered together, frogs that Naruto had never seen before. One of the frogs, the smallest and the most elderly looking one was sitting on top of the largest frog of the group, being as large as an average sized dog.

"Is that Little Jiraiya's apprentice?" The elderly frog asked.

"Who's this?" Naruto asked. "Is he one of Ero-Sennin's frogs?"

"Ero-Sennin? HA!" The small old frog laughed, "I should've known somebody would give him such a name."

"Naruto, show some manners." Tsunade said, "This is Fukasaku, one of the two Great Sage Frogs."

"Well, what does he want from me?" Naruto asked.

"Well, I don't know an easy way to say this, so I'll say it straight up." Fukasaku said, "Little Jiraiya died in battle, killed by Pain of Akatsuki."

Naruto stood before them all with the shocked look on his face. "W...what? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"I'm sorry Naruto, the Great Sage Frog is telling the truth." Tsunade said, "He was there when it happened."

Naruto was still distraught at this. It was only a few days ago when he last saw Jiraiya. Now, he's gone. The next best thing he had to family was now gone. Hinata placed a hand on his shoulder. "Naruto-kun, are you alright?"

"I...I need some air." Naruto turned to leave. "I have to go."

"Naruto, wait." Sakura grabbed his wrist, gently.

"Please, just let me go." Naruto shook Sakura's hand off. "And don't follow me." Naruto left the office, closing the door behind him.

"I'm sorry Fukasaku, I should've expected Naruto to react like this." Tsunade said.

"Perhaps you can talk to him another time." Kakashi said.

"There's nothing to apologize for, and I don't really have anything else to say." Fukasaku said, "I knew it would be like this too. I can tell just by how he reacted, that boy truly loved Jiraiya."

* * *

Naruto sat alone on a large rock that was embedded onto the ground just three feet away from the river. Naruto remembered that this was the place that he had first trained with Jiraiya to learn how to walk on water. He remembered how Jiraiya would often lose focus on him to spy on women, but Naruto knew that it was just how he was. Thinking back, Naruto remembered how he hated Jiraiya's perverted nature, but now, he wished he could see that once last time. Naruto closed his eyes and let all the tears come down his face and fall.

Sakura, Sasuke, Hinata, and Tsunade finally arrived to where Naruto disappeared to. They all saw Naruto sitting alone on the rock with no one else around.

"Is he alright?" Sakura asked.

"We should go check on him." Sasuke said.

Slowly, the four of them approached Naruto. As they came to him, they each tried to think of something to cheer him up somehow, but once they reached him, they were still left with nothing.

"Naruto-kun, are you alright?" Hinata asked. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but was saddened inside, when Naruto slightly cringed.

"He was all I had left." Naruto said, "The only family I had left in this world, and now he's gone. It's all because of me."

"Naruto, don't say that." Tsunade said, "It wasn't your fault Jiraiya was killed by Akatsuki."

"YES IT WAS!" Naruto yelled as he turned around, "Its because of me that Akatsuki even exists. Jiraiya wanted to save me and died because of it."

All four were now slightly worried about Naruto. The loss of someone close to him can only lead to something bad.

"Pain's gonna pay for this. He's gonna pay for what he did." Naruto said. He wiped the tears off his face and eyes, "I hope he comes out of hiding, I hope we meet. Cause when I see his God forbidden face, I'M GONNA KILL HIM!!!"

"Naruto-kun..."

"Kakashi-sensei." Naruto got up from the rock, "Let's get back to training, now."

* * *

**Wow, that took a while. Like I said, I'm working on my other stories, so this one will have fewer updates. But I still plan on finishing it, I don't care how long it'll take, it'll get done.**

**But for now, I can get you guys prepared for some future events.**

**I'll definitely have a sequel planned out. With the Kyuubi dead, Akatsuki finally finds a new plan to obtain Naruto's power.**

**I've also decided to make another sequel after. I won't spoil anything about it, but I can assure you all its gonna have quite a few demons involved.**

**And sorry to those who were hoping for it, but I don't plan on giving Naruto the power to obtain Sage Mode. If I'd had known Naruto would do that, I wouldn't have given him the power to transform into a Kyuubi/human hybrid, but hell, this is my fanfiction and I'm gonna do what I want with it.  
**

**Leave a review please.  
**


	4. Finding New Things

**Update!!!**

**Well, I hope you're all still dedicated to my story.**

**I guess All I can do now is leave it for you all to read. I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

**"Come on!" Naruto threw one of his three-prong kunai forward towards the tree that was several feat ahead. Concentrating hard, Naruto suddenly found himself standing a few inches closer to the tree, but not close enough. "Dammit!"

"Naruto, you shouldn't push yourself." Kakashi said. "This is a dangerous technique."

"I can do this!" Naruto shouted. "Just let me do this!" He slammed his hands together into a seal. He closed his eyes, focusing his chakra into the teleportation. When he opened his eyes, he suddenly found himself standing some distance away from his goal. "NO!"

Kakashi approached Naruto, concerned for his condition. "Naruto, let's take a break, we can continue this when..."

"SHUT UP!!!" Naruto shouted in rage. "JUST SHUT UP!!!" His body slowly began to burn with chakra as he began to succumb to his beastly change. His skin began to grow into fur and nine tails slowly grew out. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING ME, BUT YOU'RE NOT DOING SHIT!!!" Naruto charged at Kakashi fueled with rage. Just as he was about to make contact with his teacher, a blur shot by and tackled Naruto to the ground.

"Geez, I leave you alone for twenty minutes and already you wanna kill something." Sasuke stood over Naruto, his skin was changed in his Cursed Seal with the large wings closed up behind him. Naruto slowly got to his feet, growling furiously at Sasuke. "Ok, that won't do." As soon as Naruto got to his feet, Sasuke dashed behind him and wrapped his arms under his arms, bringing his hands behind Naruto's head. With his wings, Sasuke got a strong hold on Naruto's legs. "Take it easy Naruto, breathe." Naruto continued to struggle his way free, but Sasuke proved to be stronger than he was at this. "Just breathe dammit." Naruto's struggling slowly faded, until Naruto was finally calm and his fox-hybrid appearance disappeared and reverted back to his human look. Sasuke released his grip and let Naruto drop on his knees. "You alright?" The change of the Cursed Seal slowly faded from his skin and the wings shrank into his back.

Naruto panted heavily. "Yeah...I'm fine..." Naruto wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Thanks, I needed that..."

"Holy shit Naruto." Sasuke crossed his arms. "Hinata tells me you haven't been home for the past few days." He reached down to pick up a bottle of water that was on the grass and tossed it to Naruto. "She's really worried, and so is Sakura. With her worried we never have the time to....." Sasuke paused briefly. "...connect, with each other."

Naruto chugged the water bottle, completely ignoring Sasuke's brief pause at mid sentence. "Just tell them I'm fine."

"Alright." Sasuke shrugged. "Suit yourself, I'll go tell them then." Sasuke turned and left the field.

* * *

Hinata poured a bowl of ramen into a strainer, letting the soup pour into the drain leaving the noodle and the vegetable chunks behind. She then dumped the remains of the strainer into the trash. Hinata walked over to the sofa and sat down, resting her arms on her knees and resting her chin on her hands.

While she sat on her sofa, visibly upset, a knock was heard on her door. Hinata slowly got up from the sofa and went to the door to open it. When she opened it, she was greeted by Sakura. "Oh, hi Sakura."

"Hi Hinata." Sakura said. Her smile faded when she saw that Hinata wasn't looking all that happy herself. "Are you alright?" She looked around the apartment, finding it empty. "Naruto's not home again?"

Hinata walked further into the living room, picking up a pillow that she had accidentally dropped when she got up from the sofa. "He's been out at the training field since we heard Jiraiya-sama..." Hinata paused briefly. "He just trains all day and then just sleeps out at the field. He hasn't come home since then."

* * *

"Naruto, are you alright?" Kakashi asked.

"I'll be fine." Naruto took a few gulps of water from the bottle. "Just need to get my mind off things."

"Naruto, don't push yourself." Kakashi said. "I know its tough to lose someone close to you. The feeling is painful, as if something ripped a hole in your heart that could never be healed."

Naruto was able to sense of tone of sadness in his voice. Naruto turned to face Kakashi. "Is that how you felt when my dad died?"

Kakashi nodded slightly. "He was a great teacher, he like family to me, like a father."

Naruto gave a small smile. "You must've loved him."

"Yes, I did." Kakashi smiled back. "And I can see that you loved Jiraiya." Kakashi placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "But Jiraiya made his choice. Tsunade knew of the danger he would go through, but..."

"Wait." Something quickly clicked in Naruto's mind. "Baa-chan knew?"

"Hmm?" Kakashi was suddenly confused about Naruto's reaction. "Of course, she was the one who gave him authorization to go. I thought either she or Jiraiya told you."

"No, none of them did." Naruto was slowly starting to realize that the one responsible for all this was now Tsunade. "She tried to hide it from me." In a flash Naruto ran through the trees, heading back to the village and to Tsunade.

"NARUTO!! WAIT!!!"

* * *

"Shizune, do you mind organizing these files for me?" Tsunade asked. While looking through some unchecked document, she began to the hear someone shouting.

"Baa-chan!"

"Naruto?" Only Naruto would call her that, and by the tone of voice, he wasn't happy.

Naruto threw the door open and stormed in, looking angry. "IT WAS YOU! YOU DID THIS!!"

"Calm down, Naruto." Tsunade said. "What's this about?"

"I have no intention of calming down!" Naruto said. "I know you sent Jiraiya out to fight Pain!" _Oh no._ Naruto found out. Tsunade bit her lower lip, she knew Naruto would be like this if he knew, but she wasn't prepared for it. "Why did you let him go? WHY DID YOU SEND HIM TO DIE?! WHY DID YOU GET RID OF THE ONE THING I HAD LEFT OF FAMILY?!"

"Jiraiya made his choice." Tsunade answered, keeping her composure strong. "I acknowledged it. He did it to protect you, Naruto. He went to fight Pain so you wouldn't have to."

"But you knew he would get killed." Naruto said. He fell to his knees and slammed a fist into the ground. "Why...why did you have to let this happen?"

Sakura then entered the office. Her focus immediately fell on Naruto, recognizing the shouting from earlier to be from him. "What's going on here?"

"Sakura, can you please take Naruto?" Tsunade asked. "I think he needs time to himself."

Sakura nodded, she walked over to Naruto and held him up by his arm, but Naruto refused to move. He threw his arm away, releasing Sakura's grip on him. He then got up on his own and slowly walked towards the door. As Naruto left, Sakura quickly walked after him, getting out of the office before the door closed. "Naruto." Sakura reached Naruto and reached out for his arm, but he threw his arm away again. "Naruto, what's wrong with you?" Naruto stopped walking, he didn't turn to face her instead looking down to the floor. "What were you doing? Why were you shouting at her?" When Naruto didn't answer her after several seconds, she decided to walk around him to look him in the face. "Naruto, talk to me. Why were you here?"

Naruto slowly lifted his head, glaring at Sakura with raging eyes. "Ask Baa-chan." Naruto then pushed Sakura aside and continued to walk away.

* * *

Three days had gone by since Naruto had learned the truth about Jiraiya and Tsunade's involvement in his death. After hearing about all this, Naruto lost the will to continue with his training. He had spent the rest of his time at home, never leaving. This concerned Hinata to no end, but she trusted Naruto to tell her whatever is bothering him when he felt like it. But until then, she decided to give him his space. While Naruto was alone at home again, Kakashi arrived at the door.

"Naruto, we're needed at Tsunade's office." Kakashi said.

Hearing her name made Naruto cringe. "Give me a minute." He closed the door right away, not giving Kakashi a chance to say anything. True to his word, Naruto was ready in a minute. He left with Kakashi and arrived at the Hokage office several minutes later.

"What's this about?" Naruto asked. He noticed that Guy, Ino, Sai, Lee, and Hinata were in the office with his team.

"I've got a mission." Tsunade said. "I need you all to go to the Hot Springs Village."

"Why there?" Sakura asked. "Isn't it just a tourist attraction now, what do they need ninjas for?"

"There have been reports of pirate attacks." Tsunade answered. She opened up a folder to read out the report. "The village has been getting frequent visits from pirates, who show up in the village, stealing goods, attacking innocents, and kidnapping the women for only god knows what."

"So, the village hired us to deal with the pirates? Sasuke asked. "What ranking is this?"

"As of now, it's a B-rank mission." Tsunade answered, "But if situations get worse, it may end up being A-rank." She handed the folders to the team leaders. "You all have an hour to prepare."

"Alright, then let's get going." Lee said.

"Team Kakashi, could you stay for a minute?" Tsunade requested. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and Sai stopped in their tracks and turned to face the Hokage. "Sai, you may go with the others."

"What is it this time?" Naruto asked, still ill-mannered.

"Before your team goes to the village, there is one location I'd like you to go to first." Tsunade said, "We have information on an Akatsuki hideout that is located on the way to the village." She handed Kakashi a rolled up parchment. When he unrolled it, he found that it was a map with the location of the hideout marked in a black 'X'.

"What are we supposed to find there?" Sasuke asked.

"We know that Akastuki is still after Naruto, but we still don't know the reason why." Tsunade explained. The team already knew what she meant; with Kyuubi dead, Naruto should no longer be in trouble with Akastuki, but apparently, they are still trying to hunt him. "Perhaps it may lead us to getting some more answers."

"How did you find this hideout?" Naruto asked, glaring at Tsunade.

Tsunade paused for a brief second. "Jiraiya sent me some information shortly before he faced Pein."

Naruto sighed with a hint of anger. "Should've known."

"Naruto, what happened happened. You need to try and move on." Tsunade said, trying to sound as stern as she could.

"What if I don't want to?" Naruto asked, now showing more of his inner temper. "What are you gonna do? Send me after Pein to get killed too?!"

"Naruto, just stop." Sakura tried to calm him down by placing a hand on his shoulder, but Naruto quickly grabbed the hand threw it aside.

"You stay out of this!" Naruto said, pointing a finger at her. "You have no part in this." He turned his glare back to Tsunade, his anger was visible enough to show that his pupils were beginning to slit.

"Naruto, don't make me suspend you from this mission." Tsunade said, slightly wary of Naruto's anger.

"Don't bother, I'm not going." He turned and made his way out the door. "I'm staying home, enjoy your fucking mission."

"Naruto!" Tsunade shouted, hoping that he would stop. But he didn't, he kept walking and slammed the door behind him. Tsunade leaned back on her chair, rubbing her temples. "That's all I have left for you, carry out your mission."

"I'll be sure to send carrier pigeons occasionally with updates." Kakashi said. He looked to the remaining members of his team. "Let's go."

* * *

Naruto stood outside his balcony, looking out to the village. True to his word, Naruto chose to stay home and not partake in the mission. He locked the door of his apartment, making sure no one would walk in. He needed to be alone. Naruto held the gold leaf in his hand, pressed against his index and middle finger. The balcony railing just underneath his head was wet from multiple teardrops that fell onto the bar. He looked down to the leaf, bringing up to his face, now this was all that can connect him to both his father and Jiraiya. He pressed the leaf to his lips and played his lullaby once again. He closed his eyes and he enveloped himself in the soft music, taking himself away in a peaceful place, away from pain, away from sadness. While he drifted of, he suddenly heard the sound of someone screaming, a woman. Suddenly, a image flashed into his mind. A largely masked being roared at him as he lunged himself at Naruto.

"Ah!" Naruto tripped and fell backwards, landing on his behind. He looked puzzled, what was with that image? Who was that he saw in the armor? He looked down to the leaf, curious as to why he had that image. Getting up, he went inside his apartment. He put the leaf back into the box that contained everything else of his father's, making sure it stayed safe.

The door then unlocked and opened. Knowing that only Hinata was the other person with a key to the place, he knew it had to be her, most likely knowing about what happened. "Naruto-kun, are you alright? Sakura told me what happened."

"I'm fine." Clearly a lie, but what right did he have to bother Hinata with this?

"Naruto-kun, I know you're not alright. You lost someone close to you." Hinata walked up to Naruto, feeling compelled to comfort him. She then wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tight. "I know it must hurt you, but..."

"No, you don't know." Naruto reached back, grabbing Hinata's wrists and pulled them apart. "You don't know what it's like."

Hinata was taken back by this. "Naruto-kun, what's wrong with you?"

"You don't know what it's like to lose someone close." Naruto said with an upsetting tone. "You still have family, I have nothing." That was when Naruto realized he may have gone too far. He saw that Hinata was beginning to tear. By now, Hinata has learned to control her emotions to the point where something as hurtful as Naruto's words would be what triggers her tears. Hinata then turned to leave the apartment, not wishing to stay a minute longer and listen to Naruto's hurtful words. "Wait. Hinata, I'm sorry." Naruto sighed, hurting Hinata was something he never wanted to do, but sadly, he did. "I didn't meant to take it out on you. I'm just....I...I miss him, that's all."

"Naruto-kun, let's sit down." Hinata reached out and held Naruto's hand. "I know you want to talk about all this, and I'm here to listen."

* * *

Tsunade sat behind her desk, burying her face in her hands. "Why, why, why, why, why?"

"What's wrong?" Shizune asked.

Tsunade lifted her head to look at Shizune. "I should've known Naruto would find out about this. I should have done something different; maybe not let Jiraiya go. He'll never forgive me for this."

"You know that isn't true." Shizune said. "Naruto's never been one to hate someone for long, I'm sure in time he'll forgive you."

* * *

Naruto and Hinata had been sitting on the sofa in their apartment, talking about things, connecting more with each other.

"Wow, I never knew you had it like that." Naruto said. "I'm so sorry to hear about it."

"I've learned to live past that." Hinata said.

"Hinata, I still can't believe I've been lucky enough to have you in my life." Naruto said, smiling at her. "Right now, I don't what I'd be doing if you weren't here to be with me." He held onto Hinata's hands, rubbing then with his thumbs. "I could tell you that I love you everyday, but feel that it's never enough."

Hinata blushed brightly from hearing Naruto say such a thing. "Naruto-kun, just being with you is more than enough for me." She leaned over and kissed him. "So, you still going to stay home?"

Naruto smiled. "I think I have a change of heart." He looked over to the clock on the wall. "We still have some time. Feel like spending it together?"

Hinata smiled brightly at the thought. She got up from the sofa, standing over Naruto. She then brought a leg over Naruto and then rested her self on Naruto's lap, facing him as she had her arms over his shoulder.

* * *

Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi stood outside the gates. Kakashi leaned against the large doors reading his book, Sasuke sat on the ground next to him with his eyes closed, and Sakura was pacing across the gateway.

"Sakura, you're gonna dig a trench if you keep walking like that." Kakashi said, not taking his focus off the book. "Hinata said he'll be here."

"Well, he's already late." Sakura growled. "It's been ten minutes since Hinata left with her team. I swear, if he's not here in the next five, we better leave."

On cue, Naruto appeared, walking towards the team. "Hey guys."

"Naruto, you're late." Sakura growled. "We were supposed to ten minutes ago."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, smiling. "Yeah, I know. But at least I'm here. Let's get going."

* * *

Roughly five hours into their journey, the team decided to take a break. While Kakashi had prepared the tents, Naruto prepared a fire, while Sakura and Sasuke were out to gather wood for the fire. In time, the campsite was all set up as the sun was just touching the horizon. Naruto poked at the fire with a stick, having his mind wandering elsewhere.

"Naruto?" Naruto looked up and saw Kakashi standing over him. "Something on your mind?"

"Not really." Naruto answered, looking back at the flames. "I guess I still trying to cope with things."

Kakashi then sat down by the fire, next to Naruto. "Hinata said that you two talked through everything. You mind telling me what she said?"

Naruto tossed the stick he was holding into the fire and watched as it burned. "She told me about her mom, about how she felt with having no mother around. But she also told me that she didn't spend her life crying for her, she said that when it wasn't me to give her motivation, it was her mom. As long as there was someone who you wanted to make proud, death shouldn't stop you. So that's what I plan to do; Ero-Sennin might not be able to see be become Hokage like I wanted, but at least he can still see me from up there." Naruto then looked up to the sky. "And I promise to make him proud."

"GUYS!" Sakura's voice was heard through trees.

Naruto and Kakashi looked in the direction. From the scream, something was definitely wrong. The two left the campsite and ran through the forest to where they later found Sakura and Sasuke watching as an unknown man was seizing and foaming from the mouth. "Who the hell is he?" The man was dressed in shinobi gear and from the forehead protector he was wearing, he was a shinobi from Iwagakure.

The man then hunched over and grabbed his chest and screamed in pain. "AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!" The man then threw his head up as his chest began to expand, as if something was pushing from inside. He then ripped his shirt open, revealing the abnormal lump on his chest. Suddenly, the growth expanded to the point it ripped the flesh open. The small tear in his skin then grew into a large rip and blood began to run out of the wound. The wound then opened up as a large billow of smoke shot out of the body and flew up into the sky and disappeared.

"What the fuck was that?!" Naruto asked, watching the smoke slowly disappeared as it flew further away.

Sakura kneeled by the body, looking at the mutilated corpse of the Iwa shinobi. "Oh god, not another one."

Sasuke looked over at the face of this corpse. "Did you see that? It was like something just ripped through his chest."

"I don't sense any chakra in this guy." Naruto said. "Even for a recently dead body, its strange to find absolutely no chakra remaining in a shinobi." He looked around, hoping to catch of glimpse of whatever that thing was that came out of the corpse again. "Wait. Sakura, you said this was another one? There's more?"

"Yeah, there were five others before him." Sakura said. "Same condition every time; chests ripped open, organs mutilated, bloody mess."

"I think we may have found the cause of it." Naruto said. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was a demon."

* * *

**Uh oh, what's gonna happen now?**

**Well, I'm glad you loyal readers are still dedicated to my stories. With summer now coming close, I may have more time with my fanfictions. So I think I might be able to update stories more frequently.**

**Like always, please give me some reviews.  
**


	5. A Little More Cursed

**My god, I've been holding this chapter off for too long. I really need to get back on track with this.**

**Sorry for making you all wait, but I hope this chapter is worth waiting for.**

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke burned the remains of the body. Being horribly mutilated when the unknown demon escaped, burying the corpse seemed rather pointless. While this was taking place, Sakura had filled out some notes about the situation. Having encountered this for another time, Sakura found it best to record it and let Tsunade know when they all return. "We should keep moving, this secret hideout shouldn't be too far away."

With the corpse now completely incinerated, Naruto kicked dirt at the fire to put it out. "Then let's hurry."

The group left the area, continuing on their path to the abandoned Akatsuki hideout. Being quite far from Konoha, the team needed to take a break for the night. With a fire set up, the team set up camp to get ready to sleep. The night seemed peaceful; Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were sleeping soundly as the campfire kept them warm for the night. However, Naruto was getting restless. As he was sleeping, the images continued to appear in his mind again.

_"Minato-kun!" Naruto heard his mother's voice calling out for his father._

_Naruto then saw his father, slowly being consumed by darkness. "Otou-chan!" Naruto tried running towards him, but as he got closer, the darkness consumed his father further and further, until nothing was left._

Naruto woke up, sitting straight up with sweat running down his skin. The dreams were becoming more frequent, more real. What was the reason for this? Was it a sign? Naruto got out of his sleeping bag and went to the dim campfire. Grabbing a stick, Naruto sat by the fire and poked at it, moving the logs around making the fire grow.

* * *

The next morning, the team packed up their equipment and continued on their journey. Naruto was still feeling a little drowsy from his lack of sleep, but he chose to not talk about it. He managed to pass it off as simply sleeping uncomfortably. The next few hours of the journey were fairly quiet, but by the early afternoon, the team had finally arrived just outside the entrance of the hideout that was located on the map.

"We're here." Kakashi said. "Careful, Akatsuki may have left the hideout rigged with traps."

As the team slowly approached the hideout entrance, something caught Naruto's eyes. He looked over to the bushes and noticed that they weren't alone. There was a little boy staring at them. "Hey guys look." Naruto pointed to the boy. "Hi little guy, what are you doing here?" The child didn't answer. "You shouldn't be out here, it's dangerous." The little boy suddenly broke away from them, running directly into the hideout. "Hey, hold on!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke didn't have time to stop Naruto from chasing after him before he entered the hideout. "Naruto no!" As Sasuke chased after Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi followed after him. As Naruto got deeper into the hideout, he walked right through a thin wire that was pulled across the hallway at waist-length. Naruto didn't take notice of the wire, but but as soon as he felt the wire pushing against him, he knew what went wrong. "Sasuke!"

A sudden explosion erupted right by Sasuke, separating the two from Sakura and Kakashi with debris that blocked the pathway. Sasuke was close to the explosion and the force of the blast slammed him against the wall, breaking it down and causing the hallway to cave in. Sakura managed to be unharmed the by the falling debris, but Kakashi found himself trapped within the pile of rubble.

Sasuke got back on his feet, cleaning the dust off his clothes. "Naruto, you alright?"

Naruto coughed a few times as Sasuke helped him onto his feet. "Yeah, I'm fine." Naruto dusted himself off and looked around the place. The way they came in was blocked off, so the only way was to go further down the hall. "Where's Sakura and Kakashi-sensei?"

"I think they're on the other side." Sasuke answered. He approached the rubble that blocked their path. "Sakura, you there?"

"I'm here." Sakura answered. Her voice was muffled by the block, but still noticeable. "How are you two?"

"We're fine. Can you see a way out from where you are?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't think so." Sakura responded.

"Naruto and I will go on ahead, stay here."

"Stay here? No!" Sakura yelled back.

Ignoring her yelling, Sasuke and Naruto continued down the hall. "Sasuke, it's gonna get too dark further in, can you give a little light?"

"No problem. Stay behind me." Waiting for Naruto to get back, Sasuke performed his hand seals and brought his hands to his chin. "_Katon: Housenka no Jutsu_(Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique)." Sasuke inhaled deeply and blew short but strong breaths out. Each breath unleashed a small fireball that hit unlit torches directly, giving the hallway light. "That should do it."

Venturing deeper into the hideout, Naruto found it more convenient to just take one of the torches and carry it along. After several minutes passed, Naruto stopped. "Finally."

"What?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto pointed to the little boy that he had chased into the hideout to begin with. "Seriously kid, this isn't funny. You could get hurt down here."

The boy then put on a sickly grin. "New bodies." Naruto and Sasuke looked at the boy with confusion. "Yours will do just fine." The boy's chest suddenly ripped open, mimicking what they saw earlier with the Iwa shinobi. "Naruto, I think we found our demon." The billow of smoke emerged from the open chest and darted at Naruto and Sasuke. The two ducked to avoid the smoke, but it didn't stop there. Naruto quickly took notice that the smoke was coming around for another attack. "Sasuke, look out!"

Sasuke looked behind him and saw the smoke fly towards him, but instead of entering his body, he flew right through him and continued to fly towards Naruto. Naruto shielded himself, but that wasn't enough to stop the demon. It made impact on Naruto and sent him through the wall behind him. Naruto tumbled several more feet until he finally stopped, covered in dust and debris. As he got on his knees to get up, he noticed someone standing right in front of him, and as he looked up to see the face, he felt as though he was looking straight into a mirror.

What stood before him was almost an exact copy of himself; he face, the hair, even the whiskers. Everything about this clone was real, save for what he was wearing; while Naruto's clothes had orange, this demon was clad in similar clothing, except with red instead of orange.

"Thanks for the chakra, it feels really good." The demon said. He rotated his neck around cracking the bones inside.

"What did you do?" Naruto asked. He got to his feet as quickly as he could. "Why do you look like me?"

"I can take over the body of any human, feeding on their chakra or life." The demon answered, "Strangely, you're not human. And I gotta say, it feels nice to have a body for myself." As Naruto forced himself onto his feet, the demon grabbed a hold of Naruto's throat and squeezed. "But this isn't big enough for two of us. I say, you go." He then threw Naruto directly at the wall he had broken through from, kicking up dust. Naruto then quickly jumped through the smoke and landed a powerful punch right at the demon's face. The demon tumbled back, but quickly regained his composure and flipped back onto his feet.

The fight between the two led them to moving all over the place. Strikes that they made on each other did as much damage to them as it did to the walls around them. The powerful hits that landed sent them crashing through walls and ti eventually led them outside of the hideout, near a cliffside.

"What's the matter boy?" The demon asked. "Can't even handle your own strength?"

Naruto wiped the blood that was dripping from his lips and spit the excess blood out. "I'm just getting warmed up." He charged at the demon, delivering a swift kick right at his groin. Naruto smiled with satisfaction when the demon hunched over in pain. "Looks like you copied my body to _every_ detail." He then grabbed the demon's right arm and forced it down to his ground level. Naruto then slammed his knee onto the demon's elbow, snapping the arm with a very loud cracking sound. The demon screamed in pain, but didn't stop fighting back. The demon pulled his arm out of Naruto's grip and kicked him away. "That kick was uncalled for and it's gonna cost you." The demon looked at it's broken arm. "Like that's gonna make a difference." The broken arm then began to repair itself, the broken bones were mended by the sound of cracking and the arm bent in the proper direction.

Naruto looked at this extraordinary healing in shock. _Even I can't heal that fast._ "Crap."

* * *

"Naruto?" Sasuke trekked through the dark corridors, calling out for his team member's name. "Naruto!" As he turned a corner, a sudden crash broke through the wall, bringing light into the dark hall. Sasuke blocked his face from the debris as well as the sudden pouring of light. When his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he looked at what caused the hole. "Naruto." Sasuke ran over to his side. "Naruto, you alright?"

"Sasuke, that's not me." The real Naruto said from outside. Sasuke looked over to the real Naruto in surprise. "It's the demon."

Shocked, Sasuke turned to face the demon again, but right as he was face to face, the demon punched Sasuke, sending him flying towards Naruto. Right before the two could make contact, Sasuke suddenly disappeared and instead landed right next to Naruto. Sasuke glared at the demon with his Mangekyou Sharingan.

"Oh. So you're an Uchiha." The demon said. "How interesting."

Naruto and Sasuke drew out their swords. Sasuke's chokuto charged up with his electricity and Naruto's katana gained a bladed edge powered by his wind chakra. The two charged at the demon, striking him with their swords. The demon's strength managed to deflect each blow with his own hands with relative ease and almost no damage. Sasuke jumped up to strike with a vertical slash. As he descended down towards the demon, he thrusted his blade down. The demon clapped his hands together and caught the blade. The electricity from the chokuto surged through the demon's body, but it appeared to do no damage. Sasuke looked at the demon in surprise, surprised that his lightning element didn't do a thing. The demon simply looked at Sasuke and chuckled. "Kinda tickles." The demon then threw his hands to the side, leaving Sasuke open. He then reached forward and grabbed Sasuke by the throat.

Naruto charged at the demon from behind gripping his katana. As he approached the demon ready with a strike, the demon turned around, putting Sasuke between them. Naruto immediately stopped his slash mid-strike. The demon then pushed Sasuke at Naruto and the two staggered back.

"Boy, this new body is really interesting." The demon cracked his neck again. "I'm definitely gonna enjoy this."

Sasuke panted as he spun his chokuto around to hold it with a reverse grip. "This demon's tough."

"Keep it together Sasuke." Naruto said. "We get rid of it here, it can't hurt anyone else."

* * *

"Stay here? No!" Sakura retorted. Sakura was able to hear the sound of footsteps, meaning that they had left. "Goo for nothing..." Sakura looked to the wall and clenched her fists. "I'll teach him to tell me what to do." Sakura struck at the wall with a powerful punch that shattered the wall, giving her a way out.

After punching through enough walls, Sakura had finally made her way out of the hideout. But when she finally found the exit, she looked back only to see that it was the same way the team came in. "Great." She groaned. "Sasuke! Naruto! Kakashi-sensei!" She shouted their names, hoping that one of them would answer. She then heard rustling in the bushes up ahead. Sakura kept her composure and slowly approached the bushes. As clenched her fists to prepare herself for the worst case scenario. As she got closer to the bush, the rustling was revealed to be a bird that suddenly flapped it's wings and flew up to the sky. Sakura sighed in relief. "Oh, just a crow." As she turned to head back into the hideout, she suddenly stopped. "Wait, there's no crows in this part of the forest." When Sakura turned around back towards the bush, she came face to face with the deadly glare of the Sharingan, but not Sasuke's. "I...Itachi..."

"You'll be nothing more than a hindrance." Itachi said. His voice was as calm as it always would be, but Sakura could also sense the seriousness of death in his voice. "Best to get rid of you now." Itachi closed his eyes. "Mangekyou Sharingan!"

The instant Itachi's eyes opened, Sakura fell under the power of his genjutsu, screaming in despair.

* * *

Sasuke looked away, recognizing the scream. "Sakura."

"Go ahead, Sasuke." Naruto said. "Help her, I'll take care of him."

Sasuke nodded, acknowledging Naruto and also thanking him for the chance to help Sakura. "Good luck." Sasuke darted off to where he last saw Sakura, hoping that she would still be there.

Naruto watched as Sasuke disappeared from sight and then looked back at the demon. "You're no ordinary demon, what the hell are you?" Naruto asked.

"I'm you Naruto. I'm you in exactly every way possible." The demon then reached up to grab his shirt collar, pulling it back to reveal something on his shoulder; a Cursed Seal exactly the same in appearance as Sasuke's. "I just happened to be a little more..." The Cursed Seal began to glow and cover the demon's skin with the black flame markings, "...cursed."

Gritting his teeth, Naruto removed his coat, letting it hang off his waist. Orange chakra seeped through his skin, covering him until he transformed into his kyuubi-hybrid form. His nine tails spouted from behind, and his eyes went solid black with the blood-red slit pupils. Narto charged at the demon, striking at him with a slash from his claws, but the demon dodged the strike by stepping back. Naruto's more feral form seemed to make no difference in the battle, even with the full power of the Kyuubi on his side, this demon was able to match him in speed and power.

"You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to touch me." The demon taunted.

Naruto got down on all fours, growling at the demon with rage burning in his eyes. In his Kyuubi-hybrid form, rage was what increased his power. While standard drawbacks of rage are lack of focus and rational actions, that didn't apply for this form. Naruto dug his feet into the ground and charged at the demon, but it jumped over Naruto, rolling on his back to get behind him. As Naruto turned around to face the demon, the demon was suddenly standing directly in front of him. "Peek-a-boo." The demon punched Naruto right in the gut and then delivered a doublefist uppercut and sent Naruto backflipping a few times before landing hard on the ground.

As NAruto tried to get up, the demon grabbed Naruto's head and dragged him along the ground. The demon then slammed Naruto's head on a tree, hard enough to cause the tree to break in one hit. The demon then dragged Naruto to another tree and slammed his against against it, only this time the demon released its grip to send Naruto slamming into more trees and hitt the wall of the hideout.

* * *

Gai's team had came to eye's view of the village. "There it is." Gai pointed forward. "Let's not slow down yet. ONWARD!" Gai picked up the pace of their walking, which earned few groans. "Now what kind of attitude is that?"

The team arrived just outside the village gates. The state of the village was rather poor, but due to the pirates attacks that the Hokage mentioned, that was no surprise. By the look of how things were, the villagers were recovering from an attack that happened maybe two or three weeks ago.

"This is horrible." Ino commented. "How often are these pirate attacks?"

"This ocean off this village has many of them." Gai answered. "They're as frequent and random as they want to be."

As they went further into the village, a man approached the team. "Ah, you must the shinobi from Konoha." The man put his hands together and brought them to his chest as he bowed to the shinobi. "I am the village leader, Togawa. You must all be exhausted from your journey, please follow me." Togawa turned to lead the team even further into the village. They stopped just in front of a large wooden building; some parts of the wall were boarded with newly placed planks of wood, seemingly repairs from previous pirate attacks. The windows looked as though they used to have glass, but had since been replaced with just an open square frame. The building was built right by the face of a large mountain base, almost as if the mountain was a part of the building. "Ever since these attacks, our village lost tourists for our hot springs. This building is where we would accommodate all our guests. Our hot springs are inside the very mountain you see here. If there is anything else, don't hesitate to ask anybody." Togawa bowed as he took his leave.

"Alright." Ino stretched her arms. "Finally, a break. I'm gonna use the hot springs right now."

Just before any of them could step foot in the building, the sound of bells rang throughout the village, causing panic. The team looked around, wondering what it was all about.

"Gai-sensei, what's going on?" Lee asked.

"THEY'RE COMING!" a villager shouted as she ran to her home with her infant child in arms. "PIRATES!"

"Hmm?" Gai jumped up to the top of the building and looked to the ocean. Just off the shore, several row boats were approaching the village with a pirate ship anchored further out to sea. "Prepare yourselves!" Gai instructed the team. "We have to protect this village."

* * *

Naruto tumbled along the ground, nearing the cliff. The demon slowly approached him, putting on a sickly grin. Naruto forced himself back to his feet, he had to fight back, he had to get rid of this demon. Naruto lunged at the demon again, but the demon grabbed Naruto by the throat and lifted him up.

"It's over Naruto." The demon squeezed tightly on Naruto's throat, constricting his airway. Naruto struggled to try and breath, but this demon had such immense strength. Naruto finally lost the will to fight back; his body changed back to his human form, leaving traces of chakra on his skin. "About damn time." The demon then tossed Naruto over the cliff, letting him fall to his demise.

The demon turned around, stretching his back and cracking his neck. "Now, where is that Uchiha." The demon bent down, touching the ground. He then jumped forward, but instead of landing some distance forward, he kept flying forward. The black marks on his skin covered his body, changing it to a dark gray. Two small bulges broke through the back on shirt that changed into large hand shaped wings. His hair grew out waving through the wind as he flew through the sky. His eyes went pitch black, leaving only slit pupils inside a red irises.

* * *

**Now that this chapter is done, be prepared for what I have in store for the next chapter.**

**For now, my only spoiler is going be that I'll be introducing an OC that's going to have a big impact on this story.**

**Please leave a review, I want to know what you guys think. Have I been slacking? Am I still doing good with this story? Give me your thoughts.  
**


	6. Pirates and Demons

**Hello everyone. I hope you've enjoyed the last chapter.**

**As I mentioned previously, I'll be introducing an OC that'll be making quite an impact. Just read and find out who it is.**

* * *

"Sakura!" Sasuke ran through the forest, calling out Sakura's name and waiting for a response. He didn't feel comfortable leaving Naruto behind, but he trusted Naruto to hold his own. If Naruto said he could take care of it, his hot-headedness would help him pull through to the end. "Sakura, where are you?" He looked all around him with his Sharingan active to search for her chakra.

He finally sensed it not too far up ahead. It was faint, but it gave him a location to run to. When he reached her location, he found her lying on the floor with her eyes widened in a state of trance. "No." He was able to see that her chakra was acting irregularly, she was under a genjutsu. "Sakura, hang on. I'm coming." Sasuke placed a hand on her forehead and closed his eyes. "_Mangekyou Sharingan_!"

Sasuke opened his eyes and found himself in an empty space. There was absolutely nothing around him, no trees, no ground, no sky, nothing. It was just emptiness. Sasuke expected just as much, he's never used his Mangekyou to this extent. He's never willingly put himself into a genjutsu.

"Sasuke!"

"Huh?" Sasuke heard Sakura's voice, but it was very faint. He must be getting close, he just needs to focus more. He closed his eyes, doing his best to sense Sakura's presence nearby.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke opened his eyes and found Sakura standing right in front of him. "Sakura?"

"Sasuke!" Sakura ran to Sasuke and hugged him, relieved. "Sasuke! What's going on?"

"It's a genjutsu." Sasuke said. "Who did this to you?"

"It was Itachi."

"Itachi?"

"He found me. I think he knows what we're doing."

_Damn him._ "I'm getting you out of here. Hold on." Sasuke held onto Sakura's hand and closed his eyes. "_Kai_." He opened his eyes, but found that he hadn't moved. He closed his eyes again. "_Kai_." He was still in the same place. "No, what's going on?"

"Um...Sasuke?" Sakura was looking scared at where they were.

Sasuke turned around and saw what it was that was scaring her. "This...this can't be right." He recognized the place; he could never forget such place like this. The door that Sasuke standing before was the main gate to a complex. The symbols on the walls and doors had him knowing full well where he was. "I'm…I'm home."

* * *

The pirate attack came as a wave just like the ocean itself. While the villagers ran to their homes and locked themselves in, the Konoha ninjas defended the village from the pirates. Though the shinobi were greatly outnumbered, their skills made numbers a pointless matter.

"_Konoha Tsumiju Senpuu_(Leaf Coiling Whirlwind)!" Gai and Lee delivered a roundhouse kick directly at the same target. The pirate skidded along the ground until finally crashing into one of the rowboats on shore that they all came from.

Ino and Sai stayed close to each other, relying on simple taijutsu to deal with the pirates. But the pirates began to swarm all around them, making taijutsu a less reliable form of attack. Sai grabbed the small cord on his left gauntlet and pulled at it, pulling out a blank scroll. Grabbing a brush in his right hand, he began drawing lions on the scroll. "_Choojuu Giga_!" The lions came to life and jumped out of the scroll, growing to a much larger size. Sai pointed to the pirates and the ink lions attacked them.

"_Kaiten_!" Hinata spun around creating a dome of chakra that knocked back all the pirates in the range of the dome. When the pirates were cleared, the spinning stopped and Hinata stood before all the fallen pirates.

The pirates being beaten back. Any villager that was witnessing the battle from their homes were given hope when they saw the pirates being pushed back, being defeated by a small number of shinobi. Eventually, the entire village got word of the shinobi gaining the advantage and the pirates were getting scared. Hope was filling the village.

"Enough!"

The shinobi turned their attention to the one who shouted. One of the pirates approached them, his attire showed that he was higher stature; he wore a long navy blue jacket that was torn at the bottom and gold buttons that were tarnished. He carried a katana strapped to his left side and a shorter wakizashi strapped to his right. He wore a bandana kept his long hair back and his face had a large scar on his left cheek. "Shinobi? So the village finally decided to fight back. That's going to cost them when you're all dead."

Gai stepped forward to show that he was in charge of the shinobi present. "So, you're the captain of these pirates?"

"Why yes indeed. You can call me Mezoru." The captain gave a grand bow to Gai, putting a hand to his chest and extending his other arm to the side as he bent over.

"You pirates have caused enough trouble, either you leave now or we will punish you." Gai pointed a finger at Mezoru.

"Ha!" Mezoru laughed. "Punish us? We do the punishing here. Let's see just how much you can handle." Mezoru snapped his finger twice and a group of pirates stepped forward. "Show them what we're capable of."

Gai looked over to his protege. "Lee, take care of this. And make it clean."

"Hai." Lee gave a thumbs up to his teacher. Lee stepped foward and watched as the group of pirates surrounded him. Lee dug his right foot into the dirt, ready to counter whatever these pirates were going to give him. Right at the left of his peripheral vision, one of the pirates pulled out a sword and charged. Lee quickly spun around and delivered heel kick at him, knocking him down. The attack signaled the others to strike. Lee ducked under a roundhouse kick and tripped the pirate. As the pirate fell to the ground, Lee kicked him in the head to knock him out cold. Two pirates charged at Lee with swords, but Lee grabbed their wrists and broke their grip on their weapon. Lee then grabbed their heads and hit them together.

"Dammit." Mezoru cursed under his breath. "This isn't how it was supposed to be."

Lee jumped and delivered a consecutive strike of roundhouse kicks, hitting the same pirate a total of three times before he touched the ground. As another pirate came charging at him, Lee punched him in the gut, then hit him with an uppercut, and finally a strong backfist. As three more pirates came charging at Lee, he grabbed the pirate he hit previously and kicked him towards the three, knocking them back.

"That's it!" Mezoru shouted. "Tetsu!"

One of the pirates charged through the others, kicking some of them to move them aside. As he made it to the front, he stood next to the captain. "Hai!"

"Meet my greatest fighter, Noashi Tetsu." Mezoru said with a grin. He looked over to Tetsu. "Let's see what you can do against him."

Tetsu wore baggy black pants that had a tear at the right knee and bandage wrapping around the left ankle. He wore a dark gray long coat with the right sleeve completely torn off and a bracer on his left arm. He had no hair on his head, but the color of his eyebrows made it seem as though he would have had dark brown hair.

Tetsu stepped forward and so did Lee. "You fight good, but that's gonna change."

"I don't think so." Lee took his fighting stance, standing tall with one hand behind him and the other hand out in front.

Tetsu took his own stance, he hunched down a bit and brought his right leg slightly forward, putting it on the toes. Tetsu ran forward at Lee and when he was close enough, he threw his right leg up for a front kick. Lee leaned back to dodge the kick, but as Tetsu's leg continued to go up, Tetsu flipped back and before landing on his feet, he kicked forward again and hit Lee on the chest. Lee backed away and rubbed his chest. Lee charged forward with a straight punch, but Tetsu tilted his head back and dodged the blow. Lee punched again, but Tetsu dodged that as well. Lee then threw a hook at Tetsu, but he suddenly threw his leg up and kicked the fist away.

"Did you see that?" Ino asked. "He just blocked it with his leg."

"His kicks definitely appear powerful." Gai noted.

Lee threw a roundhouse kick with his right leg at Tetsu, but the kick was blocked when Tetsu threw his left leg up. He then jumped and threw his right leg for a roundhouse kick of his own, which hit Lee in the head. As Lee fell over to the side, he pressed his right hand down to the ground and flipped back on his feet. Tetsu quickly charged at Lee, jumping up to throw a flying side kick. The kick connected, but Lee blocked the kick with his crossed arms. Tetsu pushed against Lee, ascending upwards.

"_Rekka no Ashi_ (Raging Fire Leg)!" Tetsu flipped forwards, picking up speed as he began to spin faster and faster. Chakra began to consume him until he was covered in a fiery chakra. Tetsu descended down to Lee, striking him with multiple kicks that pushed him down to the ground. Tetsu landed several feet away from Lee as the chakra faded.

"Lee-kun, be careful!" Hinata shouted.

* * *

"Stay close, Sakura." Sasuke went to the door and tried to pull it open, but it wouldn't budge.

"Sasuke, what are we going to do?" Sakura asked.

"I'm not gonna give up. We're getting out of here. Come on! Open up!" Sasuke continued to pull the door open, but with no luck. He looked back as to how he got in this situation; how Sakura was trapped here all because of his brother. "Dammit...ITACHI!"

* * *

Itachi stood behind a tree, watching Sasuke using his Mangekyou to enter Sakura's mind. "Go ahead, you won't be able to get her out." Suddenly, something clicked in Itachi's head, _A familiar voice..._ Itachi turned around, but when he did, he was no longer in the forest. He was staring at Sasuke and Sakura. "Sasuke?"

Sasuke turned around from the door and found that Itachi was in the memory now, standing several feet away. Itachi's Mangekyou was active, as was Sasuke's.

"Sasuke...did you just bring me here?" Itachi was indeed surprised by this.

"I...I guess I did." Sasuke answered. He wasn't sure as to how Itachi ended up here, but that wasn't the main focus right now. "I guess I really did bring you here."

"Well, looks like your Sharingan is truly getting stronger." Itachi smiled in amusement. He then looked around the place. "Our old home...you remember this place?"

"How could I forget?" Sasuke asked. He then looked more at the setting of the place than the place itself. "After dark, full moon in the sky, the blood, I remember this. This is the night you killed the clan."

"Sasuke, I had my reasons for this."

"Of course you did! You told me when I came home! You told me this was to test your ability!" Sasuke yelled. "You killed all of them just to prove your strength!"

The two brothers and Sakura looked at the complex when they heard strange noises coming from within. Suddenly, ghostly figures of people began to appear. All of them were recognizable to the two Uchiha.

"Otou-san, Okaa-san!" Sasuke was shocked when he saw the ghost figures of his parents. He then looked at Itachi and saw that he was more than shocked, he was terrified. _So that's it..._ "Itachi, we are going back to Konoha and you are going to prison for your crimes."

Itachi shook the fear out of him, and just like that, the ghosts disappeared. "Me? Go to prison? Don't make me laugh, little brother. With my Mangekyou, there's no prison in the world that can hold me down."

"I think there is, Itachi." Sasuke said. "If you're not going to answer for your crimes, I'll lock you up myself. And I think I have the power to keep you locked up. Right here, for eternity."

"Really? What makes you think that will work?" Itachi asked, curiously. "What makes you think you have such a power?"

"Look around you." Sasuke answered. "Look at this place. This isn't my memory, this isn't my nightmare, this isn't my worst fear. This is all yours!" He backed away to the door. "I'm leaving you here."

"You can't." Itachi said.

"Watch me."

"You still don't have the power that equals to me." Itachi boldly stated. "You will never have the power because you're still that scared, weak little boy I left to cry alone when I killed everyone."

Sasuke couldn't take it anymore. "NO! I'm not weak! I'm not scared of you anymore!" Itachi was stunned by Sasuke's outburst.

This whole time, Sakura stood behind Sasuke while the two brothers had their talk. "I'm not the same brother you left alone. I'm a good man, a good shinobi!" He looked back at Sakura and held her hand. "But you don't know any of that, you never have and you never will." He backed away even more, pressing his back to the door of the gate. "You did all this, you brought this upon yourself, and all you have left are the nightmares of your crimes." Suddenly, the doors opened, surprising everyone.

Itachi looked at Sasuke shocked, but then, his Mangekyou faded. His eyes went back to being their original shade of black. "S..sasuke..."

"Come on Sakura, let's get out of here." Sasuke put Sakura out the door first before going out.

"Wait, don't leave me." Itachi's attitude suddenly changed as Sasuke was going out the door, "Sasuke, don't leave me in here alone!" He tried to run to the door, but it closed on him. He tried to pull the door open, but it wouldn't move. "NO!"

* * *

Lee sent a side kick at Tetsu's chest, but Tetsu jumped up with a spin to block it with his right leg, and then kick Lee with a heel kick from his right. Lee fell to the ground from the blow to the head, but refused to give up. As Tetsu approached him, Lee threw his right leg up to kick at him from the ground. Tetsu countered by blocking the kick with his knee, he then brought his leg around Lee's, tightly 'wrapping' around it. Tetsu then straightened his leg in a quick second which was followed by the sound of bones cracking.

"AAHH!" Lee screamed in a loud agonizing pain.

"Lee-kun!" Hinata screamed.

Tetsu backed away from Lee and pulled his coat aside to give his legs freedom of movement.

"Tetsu, finish this." Mezoru ordered. "No mercy."

"Hai." Tetsu nodded, he then looked back at Lee, who was struggling to get on his feet. "_Ju-Byou Zetsubou_(Ten Second Despair)!" Tetsu ran at Lee at such a blinding speed that appeared like nothing more than a blur.

_Ichi_(One)_._

Tetsu finally got close enough to Lee to strike, he spun around to kick Lee in the head with a heel kick from his right foot.

_Nii_(Two)_._

Tetsu kicked him right at the chest with a side kick, then swung his right foot to deliver a mixture of roundhouse kicks and heel kicks.

_San_(Three)_._

Tetsu then added some more side kicks into the combo, landing each strike precisely.

_Yon_(Four).

_Go_(Five).

_Roku_(Six)_._

As the kicks continued, Tetsu's kicks began to leave behind a trail of bright blue chakra across Lee's chest in a '+' appearance.

_Nana_(Seven)_._

_Hachi_(Eight)_._

_Kyu_(Nine)_._

Tetsu landed the final roundhouse kick and spun around to look away from Lee.

_Ju_(Ten)_._

The chakra trail continued to appear before Lee even when Tetsu was finished with his attack, glowing brightly in a blue flame appearance. "Despair awaits you..." Tetsu looked over his shoulder to see Lee in his defeated state. "...in your future." As the chakra trail faded, Lee fell to his knees. The pirates all cheered for Tetsu's victory when he threw his right fist up into the air. Tetsu then threw his leg back and kicked Lee in the chest, to knock him back. "There's a reason I'm known as the **Iron Leg**."

Lee tried to get up, but grabbed his broken leg and winced at the pain while the others rushed to his side. "Lee-kun." Hinata helped Lee up. Sai and Ino held Lee's arms over their shoulders.

"I think that's enough fun for today." Mezoru said. "We'll be back again, and let's hope you don't get in our way. Otherwise, you'll all end up like your green friend." Mezoru motioned to his crew to head back to the boats. "Move out, we'll still have plenty to pillage another day. Take what we already have."

* * *

Sasuke's Mangekyou faded as he was now back in the real world. He was right where he left himself, kneeling right by Sakura's body. Only this time, Sakura came back with him. "Sakura?"

Sakura opened her eyes and found herself back where she was. "Sasuke." She got up and hugged him. "You did it. I knew you could."

Sasuke hugged her back. "I won't let anything like this happen to you ever again. I love you Sakura."

"Sasuke…" She finally heard it, she finally heard Sasuke tell her that he loved her. "I love you too."

A sudden crash engulfed them. Sasuke covered Sakura from the flying debris while Sakura closed her eyes. When it all cleared, Sasuke looked to where it came from; someone was standing in the crater where the crash originated from. Sasuke looked in shock of what was standing before him; the clone of Naruto had the Cursed Seal that looked exactly like his. The skin, the wings, everything about this clone was like him as well.

"Naruto?" Sakura was shocked by his appearance. She recognized that appearance as Sasuke's Cursed Seal form, but couldn't understand how Naruto had it.

"That's not Naruto." Sasuke said. "It's the demon."

"One down, two to go." The demon said, cracking his neck.

"One down?" Sasuke asked. "What did you do to Naruto?"

"You know soon enough, when I take you to where I sent him."

Before anything else could be done, a loud scream was heard. The group looked in the direction and saw that it was where Itachi's body was. The body came back to life and stood on his legs.

"What? But...how?" Sasuke asked.

"You still have much to learn little brother." Itachi smiled. His attention then turned to the demon. "Ah, it's been a while hasn't it Jinzoku. Looks like you found a way to keep a body for yourself now."

"How do you me?" Jinzoku asked, with a confused look on his face. "How do you know my name?"

"Jinzoku?" Sasuke asked. _Is that the demon's name? How does Itachi know him?_

"Well, that's pretty easy to answer. After all..." Itachi changed his glance to Sasuke and back. Suddenly, from inside him something began to stir. Itachi threw his head back and screamed as a large murder of crows few out of his mouth. The crows hovered closely together as if it was all one entity. "...big brother knows best." The crows spoke in one unison, and in different voices. "Recognize me now?"

"...Brother?" Jinzoku looked at the figure in shock. "Brother, you're still alive?"

* * *

**Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you all to meet the OC, Tetsu. If any of you haven't noticed, his name is a nice play on his fighting title. Tetsu(iron) Noashi (no ashi[leg]), 'iron leg' or 'leg of iron', get it?**

**I actually had this character planned ever since I started the first Shinobi of the Hidden Village story, but I never found a way to input him into the story. But when I got the ideas for the sequel, I found the perfect way to put him in.**

**He'll be showing up for quite a lot of chapters after this.**


	7. Long Lost Brother

**Welcome back folks.**

**Sorry for delaying this update for so long, but it's up now. I hope you guys enjoy it.**

**Last chapter, Might Guy's team encountered the pirates and Lee suffered at the hands (or feet) of Tetsu Noashi, the Iron Leg. Meanwhile, Sasuke has saved Sakura from Itachi's genjutsu, but now discovered something shocking about his brother upon discovering the previous demon has taken Naruto's liking.**

**Now let's get back to the action.  
**

* * *

"Long time no see, little brother." The crows said in unison.

Sasuke looked at this abnormal murder of crows with widened eyes. "What the hell is that thing?"

"Did you miss me?" the demon asked Jinzoku.

"Miss you? If I recall, the last time we met, you tried to kill me!" Jinzoku charged at his brother, striking as the murder of crows broke apart and slowly began to surround him. "Well, let me return the 'brotherly affection'!"

As the two demon brothers continued with their fight, Sakura broke Sasuke's attention on them. "Now's our chance, let's go." She quickly ran over to Itachi and helped him on his feet. "Come on, you're coming with us."

"What?" Sasuke asked. "But, Sakura..."

"He can explain himself when we can find a place to talk." Sakura interrupted. "But that can wait until later. Let's move."

The two demons had failed to notice that the Konoha shinobi had disappeared from sight as their own sibling dispute was their top priority at the moment. By the time the murder of crows took notice of their absence, they were long gone.

"You fool!" The crows swooped in and surrounded Jinzoku. "You let them escape!" With the crows, Jinzoku was lifted up from the ground and then thrown through the trees, crashing through many of them. "I will find you soon Uchiha, you can't escape me that easily."

* * *

Sasuke, Sakura, and Itachi didn't have to move for much longer; they were fortunate enough to find a cave that was out of sight. With Naruto and Kakashi still missing, they needed to find them.

As they found a suitable place within the cave, Sakura gently placed Itachi down on the ground. "You feeling better Itachi?" Sakura asked. "You need anything?"

"No, no. I'll be fine." Itachi answered. "I just need some rest."

Sasuke kept his eyes on Itachi, staring at him cautiously as if Itachi would strike them at any time.

"I'll be back." Sakura said to Sasuke. "I'm going to see if Naruto and Kakashi-sensei are around." Sakura left the cave, leaving the two Uchiha brothers alone in the cave.

The two remained silent for a while, remaining motionless while flashing quick glances at each other. This was the first time in years that they were together without the desire for conflict. For that reason, neither of them knew what to do at this situation.

Itachi briefly looked up to Sasuke. Taking a good look at him, he couldn't help but smile. "You've really grown up Sasuke, You've become a better person."

Sasuke looked up at him, still cautious. "What happened?" He asked. "How is it that you're suddenly acting like the loving brother I once knew? What's going on with you?"

Itachi didn't answer. All he could do was remember the past, the past that was filled with bloodshed. Bloodshed, caused by his own hands. "I guess just telling you won't be enough. Come here, give me your hands."

"Why?" Sasuke asked, still suspicious of his brother.

"Let me show you the truth." Itachi said. When Sasuke walked over to his brother and offered his hands, Itachi brought them to his head. "Ready? _Mangekyou Sharingan_."

...Flashback...

_Itachi was on a stakeout mission with ANBU. His teammates were in their separate locations, hiding from their target._

_"This is Shisui, I think I found the target." Shisiu Uchiha's voice came out of Itachi's radio earpiece. "Itachi, they're coming in your direction."_

_"Alright, you know the plan." Itachi said. "Take out the guards. Leave the target to me."_

_Behind Itachi, a single crow perched itself on a branch above him, waiting to strike at Itachi at the right moment._

...End...

"Wait... there's more." Itachi said, "You need to see more."

...Flashback...

_"Alright, Itachi. What did you bring me here for?" Shisui asked. "You know we're gonna be late for the meeting."_

_"I know what they asked you to do." Itachi said. "They told you to keep tabs on me, and report anything suspicious, right?"_

_"Whoa, wait." Shisui backed away slightly. "Itachi, you're talking crazy."_

_"You want something to tell the clan? Well here it is." Itachi then threw his head up and with a loud scream, crows spewed out of his mouth. "Why not tell them about me?" The crows all hovered above the two, circling them.  
_

_Itachi fell on his knees, panting heavily. "Shisui..."_

_"Itachi!" Shisui ran over to Itachi. "What is this? Is this supposed to explain for all the weird stuff you've been doing?"_

_"Run...Get out of here..." Itachi panted. "He's dangerous..."_

_"Not without you. Come on, Itachi. We can explain all this to the clan. I'm gonna..." Suddenly the crows descended down upon Shisui, surrounding him and preventing escape._

_"Sorry, but I need his body. I can't let you take him away from me." He then entered Shisui's body, and taking control of his movements, he walked towards the lake. It was only a matter of time before his entire body was submerged in the water and after several minutes, the crows flew out of the water and traveled back to Itachi. "Now that that's done with, there's some other things that need to be done."_

...End...

"That's how you made it look like a suicide." Sasuke said. "That explains his death."

"There's still more you need to see." Itachi said, keeping Sasuke's hands on his head. "That was only the beginning of the chaos he created."

...Flashback...

_"NO!" In Itachi's mind, his innocent voice was screaming in terror as his physical form was slaughtering his clan, his family. "Stop!"_

_Itachi's body continued to strike down all the Uchihas; men, women, and even the children. None of them stood a chance against Itachi, none of them were spared. There were only few who chose to fight back._

_"Itachi! You traitor!" Three Uchiha who were garbed in ANBU gear charged at Itachi, but with the power of the Mangekyou, Itachi immobilized them and killed them while they were defenseless. "Stop, no more!" Itachi's voice was ignored while his body continued to slaughter the clan, leaving nothing but blood and lifeless bodies as a trail. The bloodshed continued on until it was down to his very parents. "Otou-san, Okaa-san. No, don't do this!" While Itachi's mind was trying to be resistant, his body was not affected. He charged at his parents and with swift movement, they fell to the ground, stabbed in the chest._

_"Otou-san, Okaa-san." There was a scream of a little boy behind Itachi._

_"Oh no...please no..." The voice in Itachi's head was now brought to complete terror, knowing that it was now down to this. Itachi turned around and found his little brother Sasuke, standing there. Fear was filled in his eyes, but while Itachi was just as scared, his body didn't show it. "No, please. Don't kill him." Itachi then began to torture Sasuke's mind with the power of his Mangekyou. Sasuke screamed in pain as he began to witness Itachi's actions in his mind. "NO! Sasuke! Stop, please stop!" Itachi's body refused to give in to the pleading voice in his mind. "I'm begging you, I'll do anything. Just let him live, please."_

...End...

Sasuke returned to reality, falling to the ground from the shock of this revelation. He panted heavily from the gathering of this new information. "You...you never meant to kill them."

"I tried to fight his control, but he only allowed me to spare you." A single tear fell down his cheek. "I was able to fight him off only for brief moments, but he always took me back. Every opportunity I had, I tried to keep you safe. I begged Sandaime to protect you, and when we fought, I held back to keep you alive."

"What is that thing anyways?" Sasuke asked.

Itachi paused for a moment, trying to find a way to explain it all. "He's a demon that's been alive for generations. He's unable to have a body of his own, so he takes control of one until he can find someone more youthful to grow old in. It's how he's lived for centuries."

"But you're free of him now." Sasuke said. "He doesn't have to take you back."

"I wish it were that simple." Itachi said, gloomy over his imminent doom. "This demon has grown attached to me. The chakra he's nourished with from my body is something he's going to want back, like separation anxiety. He won't stop until he finds me. The only way to stop him is to kill him, but killing a demon is impossible."

Sasuke was left clueless with all this. Here he was, alone with Itachi; a supposedly loving brother who suddenly went psychotic and slaughtered their entire clan. Now he's talking with this same person, realizing that his evil intentions weren't even his own. "Then, what can you do?"

"The only way for him to leave me is if..." Itachi paused. "...if I die." He could see the reaction Sasuke had; surprise. Sasuke didn't expect Itachi to suggest death as a option for himself. "You have no idea how many times I've wished for it. I wanted to die for so many years just to escape the pain of what I've done." Itachi looked down to his hands, remembering the deaths of many he caused by it. "But no matter ow many times I want it, I don't have the strength to do it."

By this point, Sasuke had finally shown no more suspicion. He now showed true concern for his brother. "Why?"

Itachi looked back up to Sasuke. "I'm afraid. Despite embracing death as freedom, I'm scared of what it's like."

"Nii-san..." Itachi, scared of death? This wasn't something Sasuke expected from a former Konoha ANBU. This Itachi was indeed different from the Itachi he has had conflict with for so many years.

"AAAAHHHH!"

The two Uchiha brothers turned their gaze to out of the cave. The scream of a woman shook Sasuke's soul, knowing who it was. "Sakura!" Sasuke got up and ran out of the cave. He had almost lost her because of Itachi's genjutsu, he wasn't to lose her again. The scream was fairly loud, so she must have been nearby. "Sakura!" His running finally stopped when he found her. She didn't seem harmed, she was just standing there. "Are you alright?"

"Sasuke, stop!" Itachi called out. "That's not her."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Look." Itachi pointed.

Sasuke looked back to Sakura and then finally noticed the change; a black crow perched itself on Sakura's shoulder. "I knew using this human would help me find you. Although I have to say, this chakra is utterly disgusting compared to yours Uchiha."

"Give her back." Sasuke demanded.

"Or what?" Sakura asked. "Are you willing to harm this body? Are you willing to risk that?"

Sasuke clenched his fists. With no offense to Sakura, Sasuke knew he was much stronger than her, putting her down would be fairly simple, but the risk of hurting her was something he was concerned with.

"No. No one has to fight." Itachi said. He looked over to Sakura, knowing what he had to do. "Let her go, and can take me back. I won't resist."

"Wait, nii-san, you don't have to do this." Sasuke said.

"This is my choice." Itachi said. "This is my battle, I won't have her suffer for it." He slowly approached Sakura, showing that he was not going to fight. "Release her and you can take me back, but you must let them go."

Sakura grinned at Itachi's request. "Fine." Throwing her head back, Sakura screamed out loudly. One by one, crows began to fly out from her mouth, hovering around them all. As they left Sakura's body one by one, so did they enter Itachi the same way; one by one, they all entered Itachi's mouth, taking over his body once more.

"Nii-san!"

"Stay back!" Itachi shouted as the final crow entered his body. "Get out of here now, run!" Finally consumed by the influence of the demon, Itachi glared at Sasuke. "Like hell I'll let you go. Time to die."

Sasuke put up a defensive stance, ready for whatever Itachi was going to throw at him. However, what neither of them expected occurred. A kunai with an explosive tag attached to it landed directly between them, exploding on contact.

"No time to linger." Kakashi jumped in from above. He picked up Sakura's unconscious body and turned to Sasuke. "Let's move now."

When the smoke cleared, Itachi was left standing alone in the forest. Despite losing his chance at killing Sasuke, he simply scoffed. "Doesn't matter, there's always next time."

* * *

"Another demon?" Kakashi asked.

Finding a place to stop while Sakura was still unconscious, Sasuke filled Kakashi in on the events that had occurred since their separation. "And apparently the two are brothers as well."

"So we have one demon that's possessed your brother, and now another demon looks like Naruto, but with your abilities."

"He said that he took Naruto down." Sasuke said.

"And you believe him?" Kakashi asked.

"No, Naruto is better than that. If he's alright, he'll know where the village is." Sasuke said. "As much as I hate leaving him, we can't risk having Itachi finding us."

Sakura slowly opened her eyes, regaining consciousness. Sasuke dropped to his knees by her side to help her up. "Sakura, are you alright?" Sasuke asked.

"I think so." She said, slowly sitting up on the ground. "What happened?"

"That demon got to you." Sasuke answered her. "Itachi managed to get it out, but now it got him again. Kakashi-sensei managed to help us escape."

"What? Where is Itachi?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know, we had to get away so that the demon couldn't attack us." A quick sound of something snapping caught their attention and Sasuke quickly got up to see what it was.

"We can't stay here long." Kakashi said. "Sakura, if you're able, we need to move now."

"Kakashi-sensei, she just regained consciousness, give her a moment."

"No, it's alright." Sakura said, reassuring Sasuke. "I can move."

Covering their trail, the three resumed their travel to rendezvous with Might Guy and his team. Half an hour into their journey, they had arrived outside the village Yu, but from what they could see, something had occurred; many things were damaged all around the village, people were injured and tended to.

"What happened here?" Sakura asked.

"There must've been a pirate attack." Kakashi assumed. "But where are the others?"

"Kakashi!" Might Guy came running to them. "It's about time you came. You missed everything."

"What happened here?" Kakashi asked.

"Pirates came as soon as we arrived." Might Guy explained. "We fought them back, but..." He looked away, upset about the things that happened during the attack.

"What?" Sakura asked.

"It's Lee, he's injured." Might Guy answered. "Ino took care of his injuries, but he has a broken leg. These pirates are more powerful than we anticipated."

* * *

Meanwhile, at another location within the village, a young girl was tending to the damage done to her home. While she was busy with the task, she took notice of something on the shore. Curious, she approached the water and noticed what it was, a body. Cautiously, she picked up a hoe from the ground and slowly approached the body. When she was withing reach, she gently pocked at the body with the farming tool. After several pokes, the body slightly moved. Shocked, she dropped the hoe and ran inside. "Ji-san(uncle)!" Coming back out with her uncle, the two examined the body.

"He doesn't look like a pirate to me." The uncle said. He gently turned the body over to look at his face, noticing distinct whiskers on his face. "He's definitely still alive, let's get him inside." Taking the body into his arms, he lifted the body up from the water and carried it into their home.

* * *

**Just to clarify something, while Might Guy and his team were dealing with the pirates in the village, Kakashi's team had encountered Itachi and Jinzoku on the same day, roughly at the same moment. So hopefully, that will explain how Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi arrive at the village just moments after the pirate attack.**

**Anyways, you all know what to do, leave a review and I'll feed on it. Perhaps it'll motivate me to update sooner.**


	8. Lost and Found

**Hello hello. I hope you all enjoyed the previous chapter, cause now it's time for the next one.**

**With the entire group now at Yu, it's time to move things forward; show some more scenes with the pirates, bring Akatsuki into the picture, and see what's happened to Naruto.**

* * *

As the man and his niece were bringing Naruto's unconscious body to their home, they were stopped by one man approaching them, a stray pirate.

"Hey, you think you can go on with your day without giving me a little something?" The pirate asked.

"Please, just leave us be." The man said. "You taken enough from us."

"And yet you decided to fight back by having shinobi here." The pirate said. "I don't think that's acceptable." The pirate charged at the man, forcing him to drop Naruto to the ground. He quickly picked up his dropped hoe and used it to defend himself against the pirates oncoming assault with the sword. As the fight carried on, the pirate managed to break through the wooden shaft of the farming tool. He then kicked at the older man, pushing him down to the ground.

"Ji-san!" The young girl ran to her uncle's side, the pirate grabbed her by her hair and pulled her back. "My my, look at you. What are you, sixteen, seventeen? The ripe age for men to have their fun."

"Get your hands off of her!" The man said. As he got up to fight back, the pirate kicked him square in the jaw, knocking him back down.

"Shut up you old fool." The pirate then brought his face to the girl's hair, sniffing in her scent. "No point in sharing my spoils with the crew, you're all mine." His actions were suddenly stopped when he felt something grab him by the back of his shirt and lift him up. He was then thrown to the side, landing hard on the ground.

Naruto stood between the pirate and the girl.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" the pirate asked in a snarling voice. "You really want to mess with me?" The pirate picked up his dropped sword and charged at Naruto. As he got closer, Naruto's right hand suddenly channeled some chakra and created the Rasengan. "What?" Before the pirate could react to it, the Rasengan struck him and in mere seconds the force of the attack sent him flying through the shore and off into the horizon of the ocean.

The man and his niece looked at Naruto with shock. "How...did you do that?"

Naruto didn't pay any attention to them. For some strange reason, he was shocked as much as they were about what he just did. He looked at his right hand, wondering what happened.

"Tell me, who are you? What's your name?" The man asked.

"I...I don't know." Naruto slowly responded. He then looked over to the man. "I don't know."

* * *

The villagers managed to repair some of the damage done to their village. The Konoha shinobi's presence helped prevent the damage from being too severe as well as making repairs go by quickly. While most of them tended to the village, Sakura and Ino stayed by Lee's side to tend to his injuries.

Meanwhile, Hinata had helped some of the village women with some repairs to their homes. At the time, she was completely unaware that Kakashi and his team arrived some time ago. The moment she knew of this was when she noticed Sasuke in the village.

"Sasuke-kun!" Hinata ran to him, calling out to him. "Sasuke-kun!"

"Hmm?" Sasuke looked over to Hinata.

"When did you arrive?"

"Almost a half hour ago." Sasuke answered. "How are things doing now?"

"The village is still recovering, but it should be better soon." Hinata said. "Where's Naruto-kun?"

Sasuke paused. Considering everything Sasuke had gone through, he completely forgot about Naruto's missing status. Now he didn't know how to explain it to Hinata. "I thought he'd be here. We got separated."

"Separated? How, what happened?" Hinata asked, concerned for Naruto's safety.

"Maybe we should sit somewhere to talk about this." Sasuke said, walking with Hinat to somewhere they could sit.

* * *

"Hmm...probably amnesia." The man said. "You probably hit your head on something."

Naruto ran his hand along his head, but didn't know if that was the case. "Maybe."

"Ji-san, we should keep him here." The young girl suggested. "He saved us from that pirate."

"Yuri, we just don't have the resources to have another person under our roof." Yuri's uncle said. "And with everything we need to clean up and fix, it's just too much trouble." He went out to resume his work on cleaning up the damage left by the pirates.

"He's not a bad person." Yuri said. "Normally, he would be nicer, but with the pirate attack, he's been really stressed."

"Pirates?" Naruto asked. _There have been reports of pirate attacks. The village has been getting frequent visits from pirates, who show up in the village, stealing goods, attacking innocents, and kidnapping the women for only god knows what._ Naruto shook his head to get the voice out.

"Are you alright?" Yuri asked, noticing Naruto's struggle.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Naruto answered. "So, you're saying that pirates come to this village?"

"Ever since they began pillaging our village, tourists have stopped coming here." Yuri said. "We've contacted shinobi to help us deal with the pirates. I only hope they can save us."

_Shinobi..._ That word seemed familiar to Naruto, but he could quite understand why.

"Oh, I almost forgot; my name's Yuri."

"Uh...hi, Yuri..." Naruto sheepishly smiled. "Um...well, I don't really know my name. Sorry."

"Hmm, that's gonna be a problem." Yuri pondered for a moment. "How about Neko-chan?"

"Eh?"

"Well, you have those whiskers on your face, like a cat." Yuri said, pointing to Naruto's cheeks. "So, until you regain your memories, I'll call you Neko-chan."

"Well, better than being nameless, I guess." Naruto conceded.

Yuri looked out to the field to see her uncle continuing his work on cleaning up. "I should go help him." She got up from the bedside.

"Wait." Naruto pulled himself off the bed. "Let me help, its the least I can do for you two."

"Really? Well, thank you." Yuri smiled. "Actually, can you go the village main square? See if you can get some wood planks, about a dozen or so. We'll also need some nails; maybe the ones that are an inch and a half long. Oh, and we'll need hammers; three of them."

"Sure." Naruto said. The two walked out the front door. "I'll be back soon."

"Hold on, you're clothes are pretty wet. Maybe you should leave them here so I can clean them." She left to go to another room, returning shortly after with some new clothes. "These are my uncle's. He won't mind that you borrow them."

"Thanks." Naruto said.

"You can change in his room." Yuri said, pointing to the room she went into earlier. "Oh, and maybe you should wear this too." She reached for a straw hat that was hanging on the wall near the front doorway. "Just so no one has to see all the wrappings."

* * *

Jinzoku landed with a large slam into the ground. His landing left a fairly large crater around him with a large kick up of dust. His wings retracted into his body as his dark-grey skin slowly returned to its human tone. He looked around his surrounding; a river in front of him, forest behind him. He approached the river, dropping to his knees and looking into the running stream. In a quick flash, Jinzoku reached into the water and quickly pulled it out, holding a fish in his hand. Despite the fish struggling, Jinzoki grabbed it with both hands and ripped it apart. Blood dripped from the tear of the fish as it traveled down his wrists. He took a bite out of the half in his left hand, chewing into the bone, and chomping on the organs.

* * *

Sasuke sat alone by the shore, looking out to the ocean. With the help of himself and the others, the village was able to repair all the damage done today. He had spoken with Hinata about the situation that led to their separation from Naruto and it only made her worry. Though he reassured her that Naruto was strong enough to take care of himself and that he'll make it here safely, it did little to calm her down. With nothing else left to do, Sasuke took time for himself. Considering all that transpired with his brother, Sasuke was at such a loss. What did this mean? Was Itachi really not responsible for the death of his clan? Was he merely an unwilling puppet for a demon's pleasure?

Then what about all his hatred towards Itachi? Did he hate his brother, or the demon?

What was the real truth?

"Sasuke-kun." Sakura walked over to him. "What are you doing out here? Everyone's inside for dinner."

"Sorry, lost track of time." Sasuke got up from the sand, dusting his pants off. "Any word on Naruto?"

Sakura frowned. "No, nothing. I'm worried about him. Hinata must be feeling worse about this."

"Hey, Naruto's been through worse. Maybe he's just taking his time for a grand entrance." Sasuke said, trying to cheer her up. In truth, he was trying to cheer himself up as well. Even though he couldn't actually justify his theory, it made him feel at ease at the thought of Naruto being his usual self.

The two made their way back to the village and to where they were staying.

"Maybe some of us should go out there and look for him." Sakura suggested.

"It's too risky, what if the pirates return while that happens?" Sasuke asked. Walking through the main square of the village, Sasuke accidentally bumped into a villager, knocking planks of wood on the ground. "Sorry." Sasuke dropped to his knees to help him pick up the planks.

"No, I should've watched where I was going." The villager said. After picking everything up, the two got back to their feet. "Thank you."

As the villager walked away, Sasuke couldn't help but sense something about him, but he couldn't make out exactly what it was. He looked back to the villager. The blonde hair on the villager had Sasuke curious, but the clothes he wore seemed to contradict what he was thinking. _No, it couldn't be._

* * *

As nighttime approached, the villagers were preparing for bed, exhausted from the stress of today. Pirate attacks and repairs to the village took a toll on them.

At the lodging that the shinobi were staying in, Sakura had just finished with checking up on Lee. As she left Lee's room so that he could rest, Sakura made her way to the kitchen to get some water. As she was walking towards the kitchen, she saw Hinata sitting outside.

"Hinata?" Sakura gently closed the front door behind her. "Are you alright?"

Hinata didn't even look at Sakura. She just looked out over the ocean. "He still hasn't come. Where could he be?"

Sakura was unsure as to how to approach this. "Naruto will be fine, he's been through worse. You'll see him again, Hinata."

Hinata looked back to Sakura. "I want to believe you, but even through the worst of things, he's never disappeared like this."

Sakura very much wanted to try and help Hinata through this troubling time. She then got an idea. "Hey, I think I know what might lift your spirits a bit. Don't tell anyone else, but Ino and I got our hands on some ice cream from the village. If there's anything to help cheer a girl up, it's ice cream."

Hinata managed to grow a small smile on her face at the sound of the plan. "I suppose some ice cream would be nice."

"That's the spirit." Sakura smiled. "And maybe after we can go enjoy the hot spring while everyone else is sleeping."

The two kunoichi went back into their lodgings to get on with their plans.

* * *

Jinzoku tossed the last bone of his recent meal behind him. Piled up behind him were the carcasses of different animals that he had eaten; fish, birds, squirrels, raccoons, and even a deer. "Damn this body, why am I still so hungry?!" Jinzoku got up from the dirt ground and prepared to wander off some more. "There's got to be more around here." Before he could leave, he heard the sound of growling from the bushes. He turned to face where the growling was coming from and from the bushes, a small pack of wolves emerged. A total of five wolves surrounded Jinzoku growling and snarling at him, ready to take on their outnumbered prey. "Hmm, saves me the trouble of hunting." One wolf then charged at him, pouncing towards him. Jinzoku stepped to the side and as the wolf passed him, he grabbed the wolf by the head and slammed the canine to the ground. Pressing his knee on the wolf while still gripping its head, Jinzoku then ripped the wolf's head off, with a small part of the wolf's spine still attached. "You want to keep going?" The wolfs, though more cautious after what had happened, still didn't retreat. "...fine."

* * *

"Morning." Naruto said.

"Morning, Neko-chan." Yuri smiled to greet him.

"So, any work to be done?"

"Well, we don't have to worry about fixing the house anymore. But the farm needs to be tended to." Yuri said. "But Ji-san is still sleeping."

"Then I'll take care of it." Naruto said.

"But do you know how to farm?" Yuri asked.

"Um...well...I, I don't know." Naruto said. "Maybe I might've."

Yuri laughed. "It's ok, I'll help you." Before exiting the house, Yuri grabbed some farming equipment. "Follow me."

Naruto followed after her, picking up the straw hat and putting it on his head as he left the home.

* * *

The sound of screaming and crashing brought Sasuke into an instant awakening. He threw himself out of bed at the sound of the danger, startling Sakura.

"What's going on?!" Sakura asked, hearing the commotion as well "Are the pirates back?"

The shinobi ran out of the lodge and out to the village. However, instead of seeing the villagers running off in panic with pirates chasing after them, there was an ox rampaging through the market square, trashing vendor stalls.

"An ox?" Hinata asked.

Sasuke quickly got into action. He ran towards the ox, managing to get around the beast without meeting it's kicking hind legs or horns. Facing the ox head on, Sasuke spread his arms out to get the beast's attention. "Come on, come on, I'm right here." The ox managed to calm down, but still was on edge. Instead of jumping around and kicking at everything around it, the ox was attempting to charge at Sasuke. Luckily, Sasuke managed to grab the ox by it's horns. Relying on pure strength, Sasuke pushed back at the ox until the ox was finally subdued and gave in. Sasuke calmly released his grip on the horns and the ox remained calm. "That's better." He rubbed the head of the ox, further calming it down. "You sure left a mess here." The villagers all left their hiding places to see that the crisis has been solved.

"Hey, isn't this Jirou's ox?" One of the villagers asked.

"Who?" Sasuke asked.

"Jirou. This ox belongs to him." The villager answered.

"He lives with his niece further off the village." Togawa pointed in the direction of where to go. "It's not too far from here, just make sure you don't let that ox go free."

* * *

"There you go, now you're getting the hang of it." Yuri said.

"This is tougher than it looks." Naruto said, plowing the field, now doing it properly.

"Thanks again for helping us." Yuri said.

"It's no problem. It's the least I could do for letting me stay in your home."

While the two continued to plow the field, Yuri paused for a moment. "Umm, Neko-chan, I have a question. What happens if, well...when you remember everything again?"

"Hm?" Naruto stopped plowing the field. "Well, I'm not sure. I mean, I'd want to know who I am."

"Do you think that...when you remember your past, would you forget me? And Ji-san?" Naruto wasn't able to think of a proper answer to it. Yuri, aware that he wasn't able to say something, decided not to push him. "I hope that you do remember everything again. But I don't want you to forget us. You've been a good friend to me."

"Well, you've been a good friend too." Naruto smiled.

"Well, I think you're ready to do the plowing by yourself, while I go and sow the seeds." Yuri said, getting back up in spirit again.

* * *

Sasuke, Hinata, and Ino had agreed to take the ox back to its owner. Sakura remained behind to check up on Lee again. After the wreckage of the ox's rampage, Kakashi, Gai, and Sai stayed to help clean up. While the three continued to walk, Ino slowed her pace to walk next to Sasuke while Hinata led the group.

"Still nothing on Naruto?" Ino whispered.

"Nothing." Sasuke whispered back. "I don't like this. Naruto's dense at times, but I don't think he's stupid enough to disappear this long for a joke."

"Should we say anything to Hinata?"

"No, she's worried enough. The best we can do is keep being hopeful." Sasuke said, quickly looking back at Hinata who was still unaware of their conversation.

* * *

"This looks great." Yuri said. "Thank you so much for the help Naruto."

"Of course." Naruto smiled. He looked over to the whole field. "Well, I guess we still have a lot more field to plow."

"Yeah, but I think we can get things done soon." Yuri then noticed that there were some people approaching. "I'll be right back." Yuri said. She left the field to see who the visitors were. "Can I help you?"

"We're the shinobi from Konoha." Sasuke said. "I understand that you lost this?" Stepping to the side, he allowed Yuri to get a look at the ox that they had brought over. "Some of the villagers recognized the ox and told us where to find you."

"Oh, thank you." Yuri smiled. She jogged over to the ox. "Are you alright? You must've been scared because of those pirates." She turned to the face the three and bowed. "Thank you, my uncle is going to be happy to know our ox is safe."

"Your uncle?" Ino asked. "Is he the only one taking care of you?"

"Yes. Since my parents died, Ji-san had taken care of me." Yuri said.

"Is that him out on the field?" Sasuke asked, pointing to the lone farmer.

"Him? No, my uncle is still resting inside." Yusi answered.

"Yuri?" Yuri's uncle called out to her from inside. "What's going on out there?"

"Ji-san, the shinobi from Konoha are here, they found the missing ox."

"Really?" Yuri's uncle came out of the house. "Oh, you found him. Thank you very much, I was worried that we lost him for good to those damn pirates."

"If that's your uncle, then who is that?" Ino asked.

"Who, Neko-chan? Well, actually, we found him unconscious by the shore."

"Figured he was a pirate at first, but I didn't think a pirate would be injured like he was." Yuri's uncle explained. "But then when we were bringing him in, a pirate attacked and almost took off with my Yuri. But then that boy saved her."

"He hit the pirate with this bright blue ball that sent him back to the ocean." Yuri said, smiling. "It was amazing. I thought maybe he was a shinobi like all of you."

"Wait." Sasuke was struck with a sudden thought. "Did you say a bright blue ball?"

"Yes?"

"Did it look like it was spinning in his hand, sort of spiraling?" Sasuke asked another question.

"Yes, why?" Yuri asked.

Sasuke didn't even answer, his first reaction was to bolt towards the field. "Naruto!"

"Sasuke-kun?" Ino and Hinata followed after Sasuke.

Sasuke ran up to the villager that was out on the field. "Naruto." He didn't turn. Sasuke approached him, grabbing him by the shoulder and spun him around. "Naruto."

Ino and Hinata reacted with shock when they saw who it was. While the straw hat hid his blonde hair, the whiskers on his face were indistinguishable. To Hinata, it was his eyes that had her instantly realize the truth. "Naruto-kun?"

Naruto looked at the three, a little upset. "What the hell? I spent all afternoon plowing this field."

"Naruto, it's us." Sasuke said.

"Why are you calling me Naruto?" Naruto asked. "And who are you people?"

"What?" Their shock took an extra leap forward at Naruto's remark.

"Naruto, don't you recognize us?" Sasuke asked.

"How could I? I've never met any of you before."

* * *

**And there you go.**

**Naruto's amnesia issue won't be on for long, but it will be quite important. After all, the title of this story is called 'The Forgotten'. You've already seen what was secret about Itachi. That was one aspect of what was forgotten. As the story continues to progress, more forgotten things from the past will be uncovered.  
**

**Until then, let those reviews flow.  
**


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